Exploring the travel and tourism ecosystem with UGA's hospitality program

before we kick off this episode we want to share some exciting news out of CAS our annual publication Almanac is now available online at almanac.caes.uga.edu check it out today welcome to cultivating curiosity where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives from what we eat to how we live I'm Emily Davenport and I'm Jordan Powers and we're from the University of Georgia's College of agricultural and environmental Sciences we are here today with John Salazar professor and coordinator of the University of Georgia hospitality and food industry management Major John thanks for joining us today wonderful it's great to be here thank you Emily and thank you Jordan for inviting me absolutely to kick off can you tell us a little bit about your background sure well I'm the professor and coordinator of the hospitality and food industry Management program here at UGA and I came here after 14 years at the University of South Carolina over on the coast in the Hilton Head Island area where I was a professor and also director of the tourism Institute that they had there for University of South Carolina and prior to that I was a research director at University of Tennessee in Knoxville but before my education career I had been in the hotel business for a few years and was bumped around the country working with some Hotel companies so what got you interested in Hospitality as a career wow that's a great question and I think it requires maybe a lot longer time than we have time for today yeah the cliff notes so when I was growing up in my high school years probably about 14 15. I used to go downtown Chicago to visit my dentist and my dentist office was right next to the Palmer House Hilton Hotel where I would just hang out in the lobby of the Palmer House Hilton before and after the visit with the dentist and I really enjoyed that feel the feel the activity all the guests coming in and out the busyness of a Lobby within one of the oldest operating hotels in North America and that became a very attractive career proposition for me early on and when I got into college I decided to major in Hospitality because of some of those experiences in the Chicago hotel Market and from there I got into the hotel business immediately after graduation with some internships along the way while in college working for the Hyatt as a night auditor and also working for the Marriott after graduation I took a position at Keystone Resort in Keystone Colorado which at the time was the largest ski operator in North America really enjoyed that I was there for a few years got back into the Marriott family and bumped around the country in the hotel business my last hotel management position was in Mobile Alabama we opened up a converted full service four Diamond Hotel we purchased a Stouffer's hotel I think I'm probably the only one that in this room that knows what the Stouffer's product is um and a friend of mine asked me if I want to be a guest lecturer at the University of South Alabama and really really enjoyed that experience and at that point that company I was working for was paying for half my master's degree and as soon as I completed that University of South Alabama asked if I would be interested in teaching and so I started teaching while I was still working as a hotel manager and they gave me a full-time job offer and my academic career started my second career I'd like to say started at that moment our next question was going to be what brought you into Academia yeah you got it answered yeah um so when we talk about hospitality and food industry management hfim as we often call it can you explain what the program is for our listeners who might not be at all familiar with a program like this absolutely and I'm glad to answer that because a lot of people ask that question what is the hospitality discipline well it's a major that is very Broad in Opportunity so traditionally people might think of hotels and restaurants and yes that's a big component of what we do but the industry itself is quite larger so even when I was in college one of those positions I had in college I was able to work at Boston's Logan International Airport which that is a segment of the hospitality industry so the airline industry is is of course you know part of the transportation sector but when you talk about Delta and American Airlines they provide high-level Hospitality Services there and not just in the cabin itself it's a whole process that goes into the management of the the hospitality services that the airlines deliver so when we think about the hospitality business I like to think of it as as an ecosystem so not only just hotels and restaurants but Resorts convention centers the airline industry it is the broader service sector in the context of travel and tourism and so that's a question that so many people ask you know well is it am I just kind of focused on hotels and restaurants no because there's so many more opportunities in the hospitality sector and and our state offers just such a broad set of opportunities for those that are really interested in Hospitality business and when you say food industry what does that entail oh my that is one of the largest sectors of the hospitality industry itself so we're talking food we're talking more than just restaurants catering operations uh we're talking about even food trucks that are popping up event venues that utilize Food Services we have food services that cut across the board even here at UGA related to Dining Services Georgia Athletic hospitality is as the food services are provided over at Sanford Stadium over at stagman coliseum those are all Hospitality operations that require the business knowledge but also the ability to design a Hospitality system to provide efficient and levels of service within a specific time period so we have a great restaurant industry within Georgia uh but it's more than just the restaurant sector we have major conventions downtown Atlanta which need the support of the food sector which come through and catered operations meetings and events um and the restaurant sector that leads right into my next question is in asking about what type of careers do students who participate in this program what type of careers can they expect upon graduation it's been an exciting evolution in the last four years because the opportunities our students are receiving after graduation run the gamut on the hotel side on the resort side on a meeting and event side even meeting in events that aren't related to the traditional Hospitality discipline as we think it is like the conventions as you see in downtown Atlanta we have students that are being hired by law offices and major tech companies and manufacturing companies as they need representation at meetings and conventions and events that are going on throughout the country so our students are in their positions in those companies organizing events and organizing product rollout and that's exciting because all of that requires a Hospitality mindset regarding Logistics regarding you know when's the product you'll be delivered what consumers are going to be there how should we engage them in this process and so it runs the gamut from hotels Resorts country clubs we have students at the Atlanta Athletic Club we've had students down at Sea Island Resort and Club we have them down at the Sarasota Yacht Club so we're all over the place in the hospitality industry and that's really quite exciting do you have students that are working on cruise ships and things like that as well I have had students on cruise ships we don't have a UGA Alum on a cruise ship yet but I think we have them in most of the segments for the exception of cruise ship that's incredible and I love that you said yet we don't have someone on a cruise ship yet oh yeah it is for anyone who doesn't know John he is Non-Stop and I guarantee you there will be someone right you just you just promote that you get to see the world on a cruise ship yeah absolutely and the ocean I think I've heard that most Hospitality programs are usually housed in a business school but not hfim which is housed within the College of agricultural environmental Sciences so um what does that mean for the program in the college it's an advantage for us in our Hospitality program historically Hospitality programs have a well-established relationship within the colleges of AG so some of the older Hospitality programs in the country had their starts in colleges of AG or in collaboration or partnership with colleges of AG now in the last two and a half decades the colleges of business have been popping up with hospitality programs and that's been exciting and I think that's really helped us Elevate this discipline in the University setting however being in the College of AG I believe gives us a little bit of a flexibility in terms of the curriculum so when we look at historically those College of AG programs they were rooted in colleges of AG because of their relationship to food now when we look at our industry as a sector the restaurant industry carries the largest employment gosh you can't get away from the food sector in the hospitality world right if you're staying in a hotel you're gonna you're gonna have to eat if you're going to a convention you're going to have to eat it's a very important component of it the nice thing about being in the College of AG it rounds out our ecosystem here so we have the opportunity to collaborate with the other departments within the college that are more food focused like viticulture like food science so if we have a student that's really a strong foodie and we do we have a lot of strong Foodies we've we've produced a sous chef head chefs and we have aspiring Foodies that want to take that same track those individuals if they take a viticulture class they get exposed to wine wine making wine regions right if they take some of the food science courses as related to food manufacturing and food product development they get to understand more of the science behind creating food so we have that flexibility to bring that to that student that wants to focus on that if you were in a college of business those opportunities become a little bit more limiting because they don't have that type of relationship and so that's what makes it really exciting for us to be in the College of AG is those Partnerships with our departments that are able to share with with us their passion for food which is a primary component of the hospitality sector as a aspiring foodie myself I'm like yes it all comes down to food sure sure I one of my colleagues Dr Dan riemar he's more of our our food Prof and he's organizing International Cuisines class for next year and uh he and I joke and I said he knows a lot about food I eat it yeah very there you go you need both ends of the spectrum because if you want to be a head chef you have to have someone to eat what you're making exactly it's a good partnership so obviously a lot of very close collaboration with ncas how does hfim partner with the University of Georgia beyond our College wow last four years has been a whirlwind regarding many departments across the campus wanting to partner with us just recently we've had the nutrition and culinary program out of family and consumer Sciences reach out and figure out how to partner up with us we've been working with the the College of environmental design and with one of our classes we've kind of taken them on in our class room to help them create a better event for their program and and our students have done that two years in a row now we're starting to work more closely with Grady we have students that are doing dual majors in public relations in Hospitality that want to get into the convention and Visitor Bureau side of the hospitality business now the convention Visitor Bureau is a very important part of hospitality they are the ones that bring the hospitality Community to life for potential visitors and guests which is responsible for marketing and advertising a community well if you have a PR and Hospitality background you kind of understand how the market segments work and then how to communicate to those those potential guests that are coming into your community so that's really exciting and outside of the academic component we are now starting to work with the Innovation District collaborating with the Innovation district and the Small Business Development Center and delivering a Hospitality entrepreneurship Workshop this fall where if you are in the Athens Market and you want to start a restaurant or start a Hospitality venue event venue and we're going to come in we're going to talk a little bit about Hospitality service segmentation sbdc is going to talk a little bit about the loan opportunities available in the marketplace the sbdc is the UGA Small Business Development Center which provides tools training and resources to help small businesses grow and succeed designated is one of Georgia's top providers of small business assistance the sbdc has 18 offices across the state to serve the needs of Georgia's business Community we'll include a link in the show notes for you so outside of that we're working also now with extension we've been working with extension in many different ways trying to develop the extension personnel and their understanding of what the hospitality and tourism industry means in their local communities so we're working with individuals on the academic side and also the public service and Outreach side our biggest partner and it's probably our competitive Advantage as far as a Hospitality program is concerned is the Georgia Center for continuing education and hotel we have many of our students that work there part-time many of our students that complete their internships there and that is our learning lab when I see potential students they want to come to UGA or they're transferring to UGA they oftentimes cite the Georgia Center as one of the primary motivators for wanting to enroll at UGA because many Hospitality programs throughout the country do not have that opportunity where they have their own self-operated hotel on campus affiliated with a Hospitality program so we have many partners but our biggest one just five minutes away from our classroom space and that's the Georgia Center for continuing education at hotel I feel like a lot of people on campus don't even know they 'll tell right here on campus I would have never known if it wasn't literally smacked between the parking lot I was assigned to in my office yeah and I walked right every day but even I was like wait there's a hotel on campus yes that's different yeah it's amazing it seems like it really helps the students gain a Competitive Edge in the workplace that they might not otherwise get it really does because it's a full service hotel and that's a big qualifier full service meaning they have the food and beverage operations they have the convention operations the front office operation sales and event marketing opportunities they have laundry services they have full-on needs for housekeeping so the students get to see the entire operation at the Georgia Center and when I think about some of those those universities that do have hotels on campus and there's not many throughout the country that have Hospitality programs and hotels on campus the ones that do most of those that do the operator is a third party operator so it's a management company that's coming in and when management company comes in that's a great opportunity for students but that management company is really primarily focused on their operational goals and guidelines versus us since we're self-operated those leaders those managers at the Georgia Center are really focused on the learning for our students so if we have a student that really wants to dive into something that's different and unique and distinct and they say you know I really want to sharpen my knowledge or expand my knowledge on the restaurant side specifically in the kitchen and I really want to work under a chef well they'll make that adjustment where the students can work under that Chef over there that's a little bit tougher to do to pull off with a third party Management Group so that's what makes that place a special place a lot of our listeners have maybe been to a conference a professional conference or been to an event but might not have considered all of the work that goes into making that event a success in my past life I actually worked at a convention in visitors bureau on the marketing side so I I consider myself privileged to have been a little bit behind the scenes on some of those things but for some of our listeners who haven't how does the hfim major prepare students to make those events successful well let's just kind of step back for a second and go back to that description of the the vastness of this industry so the Atlanta convention Market is one of the top 10 convention markets in the United States you have 195 hotels in the Atlanta Market you have millions of square feet of meeting space a lot of that needs support from the restaurant the catering Side Audio Visual technology Transportation all of that has to be coordinated so the small example that we see here at the Georgia Center even though it's 200 rooms and it's thousands of square feet of meeting space opposed to Millions when a meeting comes here to the Georgia Center we still have to provide transportation to and from certain areas whether it's near the arch or downtown Athens or to the classic center another convention facility we have to be able to deliver that service the restaurants the catering side needs to support that we have to have the technology there which is really important component now and it has been in the last 20 25 years and the tech is moving so much faster so all of that needs to be in support of the event itself so whether it's conventions or even a sporting event we utilize a lot of times the same infrastructure that's the exciting thing about the hospitality and tourism industry in the convention sector it requires so many Support Services it's what people don't see behind the scenes that matters the most and if the guest experiences an event whether it's a sporting event whether it's a meeting whether it's just staying in a hotel and if everything goes smoothly and they don't have any issues that's because the stuff behind the scenes is working right and that's the awesome thing about this business it's the one thing that people don't get to see I wish we can show them more but what goes on behind the scenes say at Augusta National Golf Club during the Masters people don't see that but it's a machine it's a well-oiled human machine that delivers that Hospitality service we've had Delta in the classroom talk with our students and they describe their Hospitality machine and it's really exciting when they talk about this is how they they train and develop their employees this is how they get the guests to engage with the employees and it's about the hospitality system that's in place so there's so much more that happens especially in a convention event side and if if folks are happy they won't know what's going on behind the scenes right I love that and I love your excitement about it like it's just it's contagious I wish listeners could see you talking right now because the excitement and and the passion is truly there and I mean it's true I get it that there are times where I still miss being a restaurant server because you walk through those doors into the kitchen and it's just Mayhem and yelling and Smokey and loud and but then you walk out and you're creating this experience for someone that they're not seeing all of the insanity happening behind the scenes they're just having a wonderful experience and there's something really powerful about that moment and that's that that's a great observation because if you're in the manufacturing industry you've got these production lines that are put in place well our production line is comprised of people and so when you're working in a kitchen it is the design of that workflow as built for and executed by people and then as that food moves out into the public domain it's about people in that process and that's a lot to manage and that's a little different from a production line it's a little different from making computers it's a little different from from making an automobile because were three individuals in a room right now with three very different personalities so that's why I firmly believe if you were a really great Hospitality manager you know how to work with a variety of not only just guests but employees in order to deliver a product or service definitely absolutely that's an art right there it is so on top of some amazing Hands-On opportunities at UGA and some what sounds like incredible classroom guests and whatnot I also hear that there's some incredible study abroad programs that students get to go on can you tell us more about those oh yeah and and gosh I haven't been able to go on the one that I really want to go on um so you know the hospitality industry oftentimes in the United States and even the world it's the first or the second largest industry sector contributed to an economy so we have a group of students that are really die-hard Foodies that love to go to Cortona Italy and and that trip to Italy where they get exposed to to wine making and the wine regions that's a really important component of our industry especially those that want to get into Club management club operations restaurant operations wine is a big investment and telling the story about wine is extremely important in terms of profitability so they get that story exposed to them from that Italian region this past year I was able to accompany with a colleague a group of students some of them were Hospitality students Donna Cuba which the students were exposed to the economics the agricultural side of Cuba and then we had experience in terms of going to farm to Fork establishments and then we had a lecture hosted by University of Havana where they talked about tourism and how Cuba is really trying to elevate that and become a larger player in the Caribbean Marketplace so that just happened this past year and that's been going on with ag and applied econ and this is our second year so the first trip was last year some incredible places to go yeah sign us up yeah yeah exactly it's not going to be our next travel episode [Laughter] you just touched on the economy and the impact on the economy and while we've talked on the show before that agriculture is Georgia's number one economic industry hospitality is number two tell us about how Hospitality affects the economy here in Georgia and Beyond the latest estimates from 2021 for the economic impact of travel and tourism within Georgia it's an industry it generates over 60 billion dollars in contribution for the state of Georgia so it's second to agriculture now what that translates into is over 400 000 positions that's a big chunk of our labor force with the convention Market as strong as it is in Georgia and we're not back to pre-covert levels in Atlanta yet and and hopefully we will be soon but we've been inching forward to those levels of pre-covered levels with the convention activity in Atlanta Savannah is a very popular Market on the Eastern seaboard and they also added more convention space to the city of Savannah which was a major investment that was driven by Governor Kemp's decision to make sure that Savannah was a player in the convention Marketplace so we have not only Atlanta as a major convention destination we have Savannah which is growing in its convention demand but Savannah has also been a great Leisure destination great destination for weddings a great destination for leisure getaways a little further south the Golden Isles has been consistently ranked in travel and Leisure as one of the top Island communities to go to in the United States so Saint Simons Jekyll Island has been blossoming year over year and then you combine that with the tourism for North Georgia that has been growing steadily in the last couple of decades with the Blue Ridge North Georgia Mountains the economy within Georgia is getting more impacted by the hospitality industry because the growth and visitor demand has been increasing year over year we have according to explore Georgia Georgia Department of Economic Development Georgia is Fifth and its visitor market share in the United States which is really quite amazing it's a big deal and we're one of the top 10 visited states in the country when you combine what happens in Atlanta the access you know Atlanta Hartsfield right the busiest airport in the world we have great access to the world and the world has great access to us all of these are important parts of this hospitality and tourism ecosystem which allows us to be as successful as we can be and compete with states that a lot of people don't oh gosh how are we competing with Florida how are we competing with with California and Texas what we are so from an economic standpoint it's a significant contributor to the economy indirectly it becomes even a strong contributor to even companies choosing to relocate here because if you have a CEO that comes into Savannah for a meeting and says oh my gosh I can bring my company down here and and and have a plant and Pooler and my employees will have access to to this wonderful the wonderful amenities on the Atlantic coast I think we might choose to do this same thing in North Georgia same thing with Atlanta you know companies coming into Atlanta because access to the world Distribution Systems so if they're coming in for a convention and CEO sees that that becomes very impactful and sometimes part of that decision process I never thought about any of that I love it it's all behind the curtain right it is behind the curtain all those things to consider it's all connected a little bit ago you touched briefly on partnering with extension and can you talk a little bit more about this partnership and how it impacts local communities across Georgia yeah this is one of the new efforts recent efforts for our program where we now will have three faculty members including myself that have an extension related responsibility we have devised an extension effort that focuses on first as the food local food sourcing also the development of operators within communities rural communities if they want to expand their agritourism component add on a restaurant create an event venue we will help them develop those types of attractions on their property we also are hiring a third faculty member that will be starting this fall and she delivered for University of Missouri destination development courses for agritourism for the state of Missouri so she's going to have more of an agritourism development type of responsibility working with convention visitor bureaus Main Street organizations and extension agents really help them develop their rural attractiveness in the marketplace to really Elevate their agritourism interests I'm in that hotel slash restaurant slash development world so I'll kind of toggle both and this will be one of the few Hospitality extension efforts in the United States tied directly to a Hospitality Management program so this is really quite exciting it's so exciting yeah yeah like I said I wish people could see you too because they're you're so excited so one of the first programs is is that program with the Innovation District where we're creating a a seminar for Hospitality entrepreneurs the other one is that we're we'll be developing an agritourism workshop for Farmers that want to figure out how to maximize profitability on their land and maximizing it by developing Hospitality operations so cool we're looking to roll that out for the fall what an incredible opportunity wow so we know there's a lot going on in hfim between these exciting Partnerships between the constantly expanding student numbers we also know that the niche rankings of best colleges with hospitality and tours and management degrees just came out and hfim was ranked fourth in the country among all private and public universities and first among all public universities which is incredibly exciting I also know that you are not one to rest there what is in store for the future of hfim wow as I had said earlier we have a third faculty member that's coming in and she's going to contribute to the extension Mission and we also have Dr Dan riemar that's contributing to the extension Mission as well so that is going to take up some time as we move forward as far as the curriculum is concerned we will continue to tweak our curriculum to retain this attractiveness of our program again being in the College of AG becomes really important it gives us the ability to create a dynamic program that becomes very attractive to potential Hospitality students so in the upcoming year we're going to be offering an international Cuisines and cultures class taught by Dr Dan riemar and that helps us dive a little deeper into food and beverage but we're also going to be delivering a beverage management class and that's going to be in collaboration and partnership with the Georgia Center across the street and and that's where students are going to understand a little bit more about the process behind some of the beverages that we deliver in the marketplace which is really important part of profitability for a restaurant and it's also probably the part of the restaurant that loses the most money quickly so being able to manage the beverage component of restaurant operations is the difference between success or failure so we'll be delivering a beverage management class as well we're diving a little bit deeper into that food component we'll continue to explore the possibilities and potential but also we have great opportunities to increase our programming with the Georgia Center creating more opportunities for our students whether it's in sales and event management Revenue management helping out Human Resources elevating our programming with the Georgia Center and integrating that a little bit more into our curriculum will allow us to continue to grow in these rankings as well so much work ahead but all for very good reason and a really good payoff it sounds like definitely all right well now is a new section of our podcast that we are trying out which is audience q a when we ask some people on Instagram okay so we asked what has made a hotel stay more memorable for our audience and a couple people chimed in mm lemur answered that kind people in a welcoming environment and Sue Meyer Smith answered when someone at the hotel went out of their way to do something nice so how is the hfim program training students to provide memorable experiences like this for people I really love that your audience said that because what it points out is the people aspect of our business it's not the fanciest infrastructure it's not the best menu it's about people so on day one in our classes we talk about this being a people-centered business you have to be a people person so we learned that on day one and we teach that in our curriculum throughout all of our courses about developing systems to help execute a level of service that exceeds guest expectations so one of the other things that came up in a lot of the answers that we received from the audience was mentioning the importance of Hotel cleanliness and dining room cleanliness especially in the light of covet of course how does this might be a kind of a different question but how does the industry prioritize cleanliness and what impact did covet have on these practices boy I love this question and why do I love this question because I have experience as an executive housekeeper for large properties and before covet executive housekeepers in the in the U.S they're they're kind

of like how do I say it they are the they are the sergeants and the drill sergeants they are on the front lines of the industry the housekeeping Workforce within a hotel is oftentimes the largest single yeah single division of employment within a hotel so oftentimes that executive housekeeper has the most employees and prior to covid there was some you know respect for it but after oh my gosh people started realizing how important cleanliness really really was and is now we have collaborated with the Georgia Center in terms of a guest satisfaction survey and room cleanliness is one of those leading predictors of guest satisfaction so it is one of those number one attributes people are looking for well we've covered a lot today from all the student opportunities available with the HFI IM program and all the way to the impact of hospitality and Georgia's economy what have we missed I'm astonished and amazed that our program has grown so so exponentially in the last four years and I think that growth is demonstrative of students potential students that they wanted this major here at UGA but it's also a signal that the state of Georgia wanted it because the Partnerships and the collaborations we have across the state of Georgia whether it's the Georgia Department of Economic Development Explorer Georgia or sea Islands or Augusta or Callaway Gardens the industry has been I guess crying out for this and they're showing that by how they're engaging our department and that's exciting pretty incredible well thank you for taking the time to join us today at we learned a lot and I thought I had a little bit of an inside scoop the industry and I learned a million and two things today thank you so much for taking the time to tell us a little bit more about the program thanks for having me thank you thanks for listening to cultivating curiosity a podcast produced by the UGA College of agricultural and environmental Sciences a special thanks to Mason McClintock for our music and sound effects find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts

2023-09-16 15:06

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