Assignment 2: Overview of the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

Most states regulate their health departments by city or county. Search for health department regulations for food service facilities that are closely related to the location where you reside. Focus on possible challenges to the restaurant industry, such as health department regulations and requirements, social concerns, competitive issues, and / or demographic and geographic issues. Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you: Determine the challenges involved in managing a restaurant operation that are specific to your state or local municipality, as well as how you would address those challenges. Determine the impact of computerization on food service and lodging operations in your state, particularly in the areas of reservations, accounting, personnel management, and the recording of sales transactions. Consider the quality of technology infrastructure in your state and the degree of technology usage by potential customers visiting or using these services within your state. Analyze the interdependence of food service, lodging, and meeting segments of the hospitality industry and make two recommendations for how the synergy between the three could be improved, using examples from your state to illustrate your case. Consider how these segments can improve their relationships between one another and how they can combine their services in order to be more marketable in your home state. Determine the likely consequences of the introduction of gaming entertainment into your state, or if your state already allows gaming, the impact of significant economic expansion of the segment upon other segments of the hospitality industry. Use at least three quality references. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not quality as academic resources.