The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes

lodging Lodging refers to the use of a short-term dwelling, usually by renting the living space or sometimes through some other arrangement. People who travel and stay away from home for more than a day need lodging for sleep, rest, food, safety, shel ...

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

and

drink A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies a ...

service, event planning, theme parks,

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. It includes hotels, tourism agencies, restaurants and bars.

Sectors

According to the Cambridge Business English Dictionary the "hospitality industry" consists of hotels and food service, equivalent to NAICS code 72, "Accommodation and Food Service".

Definition in the United States

In 2020, the United States Department of Labor Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) defines the hospitality industry more broadly, including: * 701 Hotels and Motels, including auto courts, bed and breakfast inns, cabins and cottages,

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

hotels,

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

s, hotels (except residential ones),

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

s furnishing food and lodging,

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

s, recreational hotels, resort hotels, seasonal hotels, ski lodges and resorts, tourist cabins and tourist courts * 704 Organization Hotels and Lodging Houses, On a Membership Basis * 58 Eating and Drinking Places (cf. U.S. " food service industry", U.K. "

catering industry Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major services be ...

") ** 5812 Eating Places, including restaurants (among which carry-out restaurants,

drive-in restaurant A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollerskat ...

s and

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

restaurants),

automat An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drinks are served by vending machines. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895. By country Germany The first automat in the world was the Quisisana ...

s, beaneries, box lunch stands, buffets,

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

s, caterers,

coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

, commissary restaurants a.k.a. canteens,

concession stand A concession stand (American English, Canadian English), snack kiosk or snack bar (British English, Irish English) is a place where patrons can purchase snacks or food at a cinema, amusement park, zoo, aquarium, circus, fair, stadium, beach, swim ...

s, prepared food (e.g., in airports and sports arenas), contract feeding, dairy bars, diners, dining rooms,

dinner theater Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where pat ...

s, food bars,

frozen custard Frozen custard is a cold dessert similar to ice cream, but made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar. It is usually kept at a warmer temperature compared to ice cream, and typically has a denser consistency. History Egg yolks have been integ ...

stands, grills, hamburger stands,

hot dog stands A hot dog stand is a business that sells hot dogs, usually from an external counter. Hot dog stands can be located on a public thoroughfare, near a sports stadium, in a shopping mall, or at a fair. They are often found on the streets of major ...

, ice cream stands, industrial feeding, institutional food service such as that aboard airplanes, railroads, and ships), lunch bars, lunch counters,

luncheonette A lunch counter (also known as a luncheonette) is, in the US, a small restaurant, similar to a diner, where the patron sits on a stool on one side of the counter and the server or person preparing the food serves from the opposite side of the c ...

lunchroom A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

s, oyster bars, pizza parlors and

pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. As well as pizza, dishes at pizzerias can include kebab, salads and pasta. Many pizzerias offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then take ...

s, refreshment stands, sandwich bars or shops, snack shops, soda fountains, soft drink stands, submarine sandwich shops, and

tearooms A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

. Sources other than the SIC also mention other formats of eating places such as

cyber café Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

ramen shop A ramen shop is a restaurant that specializes in ramen dishes, the wheat-flour Japanese noodles in broth. In Japan, ramen shops are very common and popular, and are sometimes referred to as ramen-ya or ramen-ten . Some ramen shops operate in s ...

s a.k.a. noodle bars, and sushi bars. ** 5813 Drinking Places (alcoholic beverages) including

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

s/parlors/taverns, sale of beer, wine, and liquors for on-premise consumption, bottle clubs, cabarets,

cocktail lounge Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

s, discotheques, drinking places,

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s, saloons,

taproom Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...

s, and

wine bars A wine bar is a tavern-like business focusing on selling wine, rather than liquor or beer. A typical feature of many wine bars is a wide selection of wines available by the glass. Some wine bars are profiled on wines of a certain type of origin ...

* 472 Arrangement of Passenger Transportation ** 4724 Travel Agencies ** 4725

Tour Operators A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...

** 4729 Arrangement of Passenger Transportation, Not Elsewhere Classified, such as ticket offices not operated by transportation companies, and services that arrange carpools In the United States, hotels are the most popular vacation accommodation. In 2022, the worth of US Hotels & Motels industry reached up to $177.6 billion.

Definition in Dutch, Italian and French

Horeca (also HoReCa, HORECA) is the Dutch, German, Italian, Romanian and French languages term for the food service and hotel industries. The term is a

syllabic abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

of the words Hotel/ Restaurant/ Café. The term is mostly used in the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

countries and in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. "Horeca" is often not a one-to-one equivalent to the term "hospitality industry" used in English, which is often used more broadly. According to the Cambridge Business English Dictionary the "hospitality industry" consists of hotels and food service, equivalent to NAICS code 72, "Accommodation and Food Service". However, the United States Department of Labor Standard Industry Classification (SIC) defines the hospitality industry more broadly, as noted above. The Dutch ''Uniforme Voorwaarden Horeca'' (UVH) is translated into English as Uniform Conditions for the Hotel and Catering Industry. This code covers hotels, bars, restaurants and related businesses in the Netherlands. ''Koninklijke Horeca Nederland'' is the Dutch trade association for the hotel and catering industry. This sector is one of the fastest growing in Europe. In 2004, more than 7.8 million people were employed and the sector generated more than $338 billion turnover.Hospitality industry course
/ref> Jobs tend to be temporary, with irregular hours, low pay, and few career prospects. There is a high proportion of young people working in the sector. Some distribution companies use this term to define the food & beverage service trade channel or the hospitality trade.

References

{{Authority control Tourism industry

Sectors

Definition in the United States

Definition in Dutch, Italian and French

See also

References