EFFORTS FOR CLASSIFICATION-STANDARDIZATION IN INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT & ISO 18513:2003 TERMINOLOGY STANDARD

Abstract

The economic, social, cultural, environmental and political effects that are reached by tourism activities have led them to become the most significant phenomenon of our time. Indeed, more than a billion individuals each year start travelling with the aim of coming back to their permanent address, and reach overseas locations using various tools of transportation. These travels that usually also include accommodation in the country of destination are called tourism in the literature. Individuals who participate in tourism activities with the aim of seeing new places and experiencing different cultures have the expectation that the accommodation facilities they will spend the night in at their point of destination have the level of quality they are used to. However, studies have shown that accommodation establishments are fall short of satisfying the predictions and expectations of tourists. Such a result leads to dissatisfaction and creates a risk for sustainability of tourism. This is why the necessity for accommodation establishments to provide services based on a set of standards that will achieve guarantee of quality has started to be debated by relevant stakeholders loudly and clearly. Such a development resulted in the initiation of international-level standardization efforts in the field of hospitality management. This study discusses the standardization efforts that are carried out in the field of hospitality management with a comprehensive point of view. With this purpose, an in-depth review of the relevant literature was conducted, and the international standards in the field of hospitality management were determined. The results of the study revealed that the standardization efforts carried out in various countries are generally focused on classification systems, but they are far from having the quality to constitute a uniform structure. The study also found that the only international standard that may be related to hospitality management is the ISO 81513:2003 Tourism Services, Hotels and Other Tourism Accommodation Terminology Standard. The standard which is known in this aspect is described in scope of the study.