Current Business Scenario of UAE Hospitality Industry

Discuss about the Food Wastage In The UAE Hospitality Industry.

The term operation management is being considered as the important process in management, which plays an important role for development of the organization (Pirani and Arafat 2016). In the current business scenario, development of operational management practices are required as it helps to increase the efficiency of the business operations as well as productivity. In this study, it has been identified that due to increasing food wastage in the UAE hospitality industry, the economy of this sector is getting hampered. Another way, the study has also identified that in the changing economic condition, the hospitality industry should switch from linear economy models to circular economy model. It is beneficial for the industry as in this process the products and materials can be regenerated, which can reduce the wastage. Therefore, through this assignment, the current food wastage issue and its impacts on the global economy has been discussed by highlighting the UAE hospitality industry. Comparing with the other countries the implementation process of circular economy as the important part of operation management has been discussed.

If the current business scenario of UAE hospitality industry will be analysed, it will be identified that after the development of tourism infrastructure, availability of tourists have increased (Jurgilevich et al. 2016). Due to this reason with the increasing business revenue, the contribution of the UAE hospitality industry in the GDP has increased. It has been identified that in the year 2017, the UAE hospitality industry has contributed near about $41.95 billion in the country economy (Fieschi and Pretato 2018). With the increasing business revenue, large number of local and foreign employees have started working in this sector. Therefore, this can be said that it has also contributed in the rate of employment of this country. However, in the current situation, the industry is dealing with the issues regarding lack of proper optional practices.

According to Stancu Haugaard and Lähteenmäki (2016), with the increasing growth in hospitality industry, within coming 2020, it has targeted to build near about 50000 hotel rooms with the capacity of 25million visitors. The industry has also decided to develop its supply chain functions for providing better service. Most of the hotels in UAE have targeted to the upper class and upper middle class hotels as these hotels mainly famous for the luxury services. The biggest question, which has been aroused in the Hospitality industry of UAE is imbalance between its supply chain and demand. In order to develop its hospitality industry, huge amount has been invested in the marketing practices. Through different social media, TV channels and other mediums, the information regarding this industry is being introduced to the global market. On the other hand, it has been identified that the issue regarding the affordability of the customers have aroused. For making this facilities for the global customers, the government of UAE has taken active initiatives. Another way, this can be said that the different customer safety regarding rules and regulations have also been introduced by the government.

Factors Contributing to Food Wastage

Due to improper management practices, the growth rate is decreasing. From the statistical growth information regarding the UAE hospitality industry, it can be said that within 3 years the growth rate decreased from 6.1 to 5.3 %. With the increasing rate of market competition and needs for effective management practices, the industry is dealing with several challenges (Lundie and Peters 2005). The private sector economy is getting stronger, as its result, the economy has become one of the major issue. On the other hand, the employees are not efficient enough to deal with the competitive industry. Due to the sudden development, training has become necessary for the UAE hospitality industry (Papargyropoulou et al. 2016). Another way, it has been identified that the food wastage has become one of the major challenges for the UAE hospitality industry in order to control its expanses.

In the case of renowned Hotels in UAE, such as Emirates, Radisson, Beach Rotana and many more, it has been identified that according to the Food Sustainability Index, it has been identified that near about 986kg food per person is being wasted (Lam et al. 2018). The performance of Food Sustainability Index in the entire UAE is very poor. In order to deal with the situation, the business industry has decided to develop effective business practices that can help to reduce food wastage. On the other hand, Laso et al. (2016) stated that large number of customers have complained against the UAE hotels for their quality of products. Lack of nutrition is one of the important issue in the hospitality industry.

As stated by Vilariño, Franco and Quarrington (2017), hospitality business has become one of the highly contributing sector in the global industry.  By using the technological innovation UAE has become one of the favourite destination for the visitors. On the other hand, with the increasing rate of availability of customers, it has become one of the important business hub in UAE. The rate of employment in this country has been influenced due to the growth in the hospitality industry. Another way this can be said that with the increasing growth in UAE hospitality industry, large number of employees have come in this country from the Asian countries. Due to this reason the cultural diversity is one of the common issues in this industry. It has been identified in this study that due to improper management Practices in the industry, food wastage has become one of the major issue in UAE hospitality industry (Borrello et al. 2017). Due to this reason the rate of profitability is getting hampered. It has been already discussed that the growth rate of hospitality industry is gradually decreasing.

Initiatives to Reduce Food Wastage

 Improper supply chain and imbalance between the supply and demand, the business industry is dealing with several challenges. Food and water security regarding risks have been also increased. The rules and regulations regarding the food standard and customer security are not being maintained properly.  Lack of leadership practices in the organizational operations, the organizational functions have become more challenging (Geissdoerfer et al. 2017). With the increasing number of competitors are another important threat for the industry. In compared to the global industry, the UAE hospitality industry is dealing with operational challenges. It is also not able to implement the operational management initiatives in proper manner, due to this reason the management regarding issues have increased.

Another way, it has been identified that the food waste issue, which has been aroused in the industry is because of timing and serving style of the employees. Due to lack of proper training the overall perfprmance is getting hampered. Prediction inaccuracy, lack of sustainability in the food quality and the type of food, which are being served are being considered as the important influencing causes behind the food wastage (Ghisellini, Cialani and Ulgiati 2016). In the current situation, it has been identified that large amount of food have been wasted in different events and programs by the UAE hospitality industry. This has brought the poor result in FSI scoreboard. Increasing amount of food wastage can be considered as the important cause behind falling economy graph of the UAE hospitality industry.

Effective operation management practices are important for hospitality industry as plays an important role to increase the productivity as well as business revenue of an organization (Priefer, Jörissen and Bräutigam 2016). If the current business situation of UAE hospitality industry is being analysed, it will be identified that food wastage has become one of the major issues in this sector. In order to deal with such situations, the industry needs to focus on implementing the operational management practices.  It has been identified that due to lack of proper waste management initiatives, the UAE industry has decided to introduce the food waste management program in the business industry. From the environmental footprint, it has been analysed, if the food wastage cannot be controlled it will bring the negative effect in this industry. In the year 2010, the Abu Dhabi food and tourism industry had decided to reduce the food wastage near about, however, this initiative has faced the disappointment, due to improper controlling and monitoring practices in the industry (Scotland 2014).

Need for Effective Operational Management Practices

Another way, this can be said that the food industry has decided to use the untouched food for donating the poor people who do not get the sufficient food. Different food banks and penalty against the food wastage have been introduced by Food Sustainability department. The food serving style has influenced the food wastage. In this situation, the increasing expanses has impacted on the economy. If the previous economic model of the industry is being analysed, it will be identified that the UAE hospitality industry follows the lineal economic model (Lasaridi et al. 2018). In the case of linear economy, the sustainability process can be improved. It mainly focuses on maximizing the rate of profitability. However, in the linear economy model, the business practices do not focus on reducing the negativity. In the current scenario, food wastage has become one of the biggest issues in UAE hospitality industry. In this situation, the Circular economy model can be beneficial. By adopting this model in the management practices, the economic sustainability can be improved. It will be beneficial for minimising the negative effects in the industry as well as also enhance the eco-effectivity in the entire management system (Kasavan, Mohamed and Halim 2017). Hence, this can be said that adopting the proper operational management practices in the UAE hospitality industry is required as this can introduce the radial innovations in the industry which will help to bring the systematic changes.

Hotel sector is being considered as the important key player in the case of developing the tourism industry and GDP rate of a country. The food wastage activities, which are being generated by the hotel industry has brought higher level of impact on the business industry. Therefore, sustainable food wastage management has become an essential part for the global hospitality industry. Although hotel industry has taken various initiatives for reducing the level of food wastage, but all the initiatives have faced failure. The European government has introduced the regulations related to the hospitality industry that will help to avoid the food waste (Stahel 2016). The government has also introduced strict norms against the tolerable contamination of food. By arguing this Nguyen (2018) stated that extreme Residual Levels for the veterinarian medicines, pesticides and hygienic rules regarding the storage and packaging of raw goods are being considered as the important drivers for promoting the disposal of edible foods. Awareness regarding the food wastage is being considered as one of the important initiatives.  For reducing the food wastage, different campaigns have been introduced in Britain (Schneider 2013).  “Love food hate waste” was the campaign message for awarding people regarding its impact. France was also involved in “Qui jette un œuf, jette un bœuf”, Germany was in “Zu gut für die Tonne” named campaigns (Stancu, Haugaard and Lähteenmäki 2016). Through the effective environmental practices, these countries have focused of introducing effective food waste management practices. In the recent food waste management system the food labelling is being considered as another legal barrier to a responsible handling of food wastage. Confusion regarding the expiry date

Circular Economy Model in UAE Hospitality Industry

On the other hand, it has been identified that the United Kingdom government is quite fast in the case of waste management. United Kingdom has contributed in WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). The aim of WRAP is the justifiable use of the resources. WRAP works with individuals, communities and businesses for helping in the case of realising the significance of waste reduction (Stahel 2016). It also focus on developing sustainable goods and utilizing resources in proper manner. From the report of 2011, it has been identified that WRAP UK has found that a there are large number of UK businesses which have introduced different policies for reducing the wastage. It has been identified that the policies which have been introduced by the organizations are informal commitment for reducing food wastage near about 27%.  According to these policies 3% of total wastage, will be recycled and 11% of the products will be taken back by the suppliers (Scotland 2014).

In the case of European countries, the advance waste management policies and legislations have been introduced. The European waste management framework directive delivers the judicial framework for the transport, collection, recovery and waste disposal. The directive needs all the states involved in the waste management initiatives, for adopting the essential measures for ensuring the waste recovering process (Lasaridi et al. 2018).  Another way, it can be said that without compromising human health and environment the measures include registration inspection and permitting requirements. In such initiatives the members are needed fir adopting appropriate measures in order to inspire the prevention initiatives. Its harmfulness and waste recovery process considered as recycling, reclamation and re use of the resources. In this process the waste products are being used as the source on energy.

It has been identified that the circular economy provides solutions towards achieving sustainable food supply and management system. Potential solutions are required for the process of consumption, food production and the waste management practices. The circular economy focuses on using the raw materials as product after that it suggests the recycling process of the materials. At the last stage, from the waste materials it suggest to produce energy (Priefer, Jörissen and Bräutigam 2016). Hence, it can be said that, the Circular economy aims for closing the issues at the minimum promising cycles and helps to use the material at the negligible amount for some supplementary inputs. The circular economy is interconnected with the sustainability transition. In the case of nationals’ competencies and practices as well as technology and infrastructure awareness among people are needed to be increased. Therefore, most of the developed countries have focused on adopting the Circular economy model so that the food waste management as well as the economic development process can be done in the better manner.

Impact of Food Wastage on Global Economy

In the global hospitality industry, the idea of waste reduction has gained a most discussed matter and many of the larger hospitality industry players have been pledging to reduce the environmental impact within their industry by the means of cutting down on energy, water, carbon and various types of wastes. In doing so, these global leaders have started to imply different methods like

• prevention

• reuse;
• recycle
• other recovery like energy recovery
• disposal

business waste disposal is not only applicable for the hospitality industry only, but the manufacturing and service sectors also. Therefore, the approaches include a hoard of methods to cover all the business sectors of the world. The organizations of the developed countries of America and Europe have followed more or less same methods. The idea is to first involve a waste contractor to understand the complexities of waste management thus advice the methods to choose the most cost efficient as well as environment friendly process of disposal. In order to track waste first the companies carry out a waste audit then set priorities and goals. Once they identify the focus areas of efforts and goals, the hotels can implement various programs. The chief waste disposal concern in the hospitality industry is associated with managing food waste and cleaning (Fieschi and Pretato 2018). On the other hand, in the automobile industry the chief concern is to reduce hazardous and toxic materials affecting air and land pollution. These are the reasons why the global industries have taken initiatives.

Avoiding toxic waste to be used in the production in the automobile industry or in the service sector has become mandatory for which the countries are teaming up to replace the toxic materials with non-toxic environment friendly materials. In the hospitality sector for reducing food waste the management are maintaining waste tracking sheet and developing action plans to prevent spoilage of food. Initiatives are also being taken in the method of menu planning and ordering so that the customers do not feel reduction in choices but cannot waste much food due to high options. The management of the hotels in the countries like USA, Britain and other European countries, have introduced the method of giving the staff training so that they also feel involved with the waste reduction programs and can identify recycling problems easily. Through these methods prevention, optimization, recycling, recovery and disposal has been posited in some places.

The importance of circular economy has been gaining momentum due to its highly relevant agenda in managing food waste. Unlike the linear economy, this type of economy does not end the lifespan of the output after disposal rather reintegrate them into the production process. In this process the raw materials are used during their life cycle whereas in the linear one, the raw materials are produced, used then disposed. This method is not a complete novelty but was existent in the agricultural sector of many countries (Jurgilevich et al. 2016). The original economic activities in agricultural was always circular in nature where the process of feeding production wastes and bringing the residues back in the production process. The circular economy is not only the means of recycling the old appliances but redefines the products as well as services for minimizing the negative impacts. In this world of finite resources, circular economy is the most appropriate as has certain economic, social and environmental benefits. This helps to conserve resources as well as energy. Thus, this method prevents the climate change in one hand and supports the economic growth of the countries. By creating jobs and raising standard of living of the people this economy has demonstrated its significance in the large players of global industries.

In order to respond the issues like depletion of raw materials and unavailability of the landfills circular economy uses material cycle of nature as a role model. This method uses cascading use of materials to achieve reduction with a minimum wastage as well as emissions (Pirani and Arafat 2016). This method is significant for the waste management in the hospitality industry because this keeps the resources in use for a long time then extract the maximum value from them. Towards the end the resources are recovered to regenerate other products at the end of their service life. This process, reduces waste, drives more resource productivity, deliver more competitive advantage in the economy of the country and help them to address the emerging resources scarcity issues better. In case of food waste management, circular economy can reduce the environmental impact of the production as well as consumption of the organizations as well as the countries. Therefore, the hospitality sector of the developed countries is following this strategy to gain cost benefit, push policies and market mechanisms.

 Like many other developed nations of the world, United Arab Emirates has been analyzing the significance of circular economy. To this country, circular innovation has become both necessity as well as opportunity. Waste especially of food is major contest for it. This is due to the fact that the United Arab Emirates residents on an average produce near about 1.8 to 2.4 kilograms waste each day. This amount is three times higher than the global average and predominantly disposed of in landfills. However, the country has a target of reducing 75% of the food waste from its landfills by the year 2021 via the method of waste-to-energy along with other approaches. It already has launched some sustainability as well as innovation strategies in order to well-align itself with manifold forms of this circular innovation. By following the measures taken by the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package in 2015, it has started to implement diverse types of policies. These policies will support the deal towards gaining help from the circular economy in different ways. The countries of UAE have aimed to fulfil Vision 2021 that includes striving targets to effective treatment of waste food (Pirani and Arafat 2014). This also include measures relating the water recycling and energy production. All of these policies aim to support the transition towards gaining more circular economy within UAE. In addition to this, the emirate of Dubai has aimed to increase the recycling rate thus attain a 75% waste diversion by 2021.

Conclusion

In this above study it has been identified that in the current situation food waste has become one of the major issues in the hospitality industry. Improper management practices, such as food serving style, inefficiency of the employees and type of foods are the main reasons behind the food waste practices. Due to the increasing amount of food wastage, the economic condition of the global hospitality industry is getting hampered. In such situation the circular economy model can be beneficial for dealing with the financial issues as it plays an important role for introducing the sustainable environmental and economic situation. By comparing with different countries, it has been identified in this study that the by adopting the awareness and strict regulations, the food waste can be reduced.

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