Concept of innovation in the hospitality industry. Strategy for innovation activities in hotel industry enterprises

Under innovation understand innovations in the field of creating new types of products or improving manufactured goods and services, introducing advanced technology for their production, advanced labor organization and management. The economic and technical innovations being implemented are based on the achievements of scientific and technological progress and existing positive experience.

Innovation permeates all stages of the production process:

• 1. At the production development stage, they influence the technical and economic indicators of the created products/services and improve their consumer properties.
• 2. At the stage of technological preparation, innovations contribute to the improvement of technological processes, the use of advanced equipment and control means, and an increase in the level of automation of labor-intensive work.
• 3. At the stage of logistics support, measures are taken to save resources, which reduces their unproductive costs.
• 4. At the stage of organizational and planned preparation of production, innovations are aimed at observing the principles of rational organization of processes for creating and producing new products/services, reducing labor intensity and the duration of the production and delivery cycle.
• 5. At the stage of financial and economic preparation, innovations create conditions for the production of cost-effective, competitive goods and services.

Thus, all innovative activities of the company are aimed at maintaining and improving its financial and economic position by ensuring the release of new competitive products.

Constant innovation in the production process of goods and services is a prerequisite for the development or even survival of a company in conditions of fierce competition. When starting to create new types of products, managers and chief specialists need to pay more attention to its conceptual content than to the production cycle of its creation. The product concept must be constantly reviewed and refined based on sales results and customer comments and suggestions.

An enterprise, when involved in the innovation process of the goods/services it produces, can choose one of the following options:

• - buy information about new products/services and (or) permission to produce them under a contract or license;
• - develop (invent) new product/service;
• - modernize the goods already produced by the company;
• - attract a partner to jointly develop a new product.

In the case of independent or joint development of a product -

new main types of strategies actually come down to carrying out work in the following areas:

• - development of a fundamentally new product that differs from products sold on the market by its novelty, protected by patents;
• - development of goods with improved quality indicators relative to previously produced ones;
• - offering new possibilities for using this product by changing its design or additional devices.

The concept of “new product” includes significant changes either in its consumer properties, functionality, or in the form, design or even packaging that are meaningful to the consumer. Consequently, the main criterion of novelty is that the new product must be so different from the existing one that the differences that arise can serve as a reliable basis for the formation of a preferential attitude of buyers towards it.

Every enterprise has a set standard technologies for ongoing operations and guest services. But their presence does not provide the company with a competitive advantage. Therefore, the management of every major hotel tries to find new technological developments for its projects. If just a few years ago such technological innovations were associated with possible changes in conducting an operation without the intervention of computer technology, now this process is unthinkable without the latest developments in the field of computer science. There are many products appearing on the market, such as automated control systems, that make the work of staff easier and more efficient.

The following classification of innovative technologies is proposed.

Basic service technologies- this is the basis of running a hotel business; they are not a source of competitive advantage. They are generally well known, readily available and used by the vast majority of hotels in the industry. Constantly improving them, for example, the process of cleaning rooms or registration procedures, minimizing the likelihood of possible disruptions; increasing the speed and quality of service by waiters to visitors in a restaurant, etc. can ensure the preservation or even growth of the hotel’s competitive potential.

Key service technologies- technologies that provide the hotel with a competitive advantage and are usually less accessible for use by all market participants. Typically, such technologies enable a hotel to reduce product costs, maximize sales revenue, achieve and maintain high standards of service, occupying a significant niche and accurately positioning itself in these types of services in the market.

An example of the use of this type of technology is the implementation by the Marriott hotel chain automated system revenue management, providing support for management decisions to optimize sales of hotel rooms and maximize revenue. This technology predetermined the success of these hotels on the market for several years to come. It should be noted that different segments of the hotel market may have their own basic and key technologies. For example, for a high-class hotel with international standards for running a business, the implementation of a revenue management system may be a basic technology, while for a Russian mid-range hotel it is undoubtedly a key one.

Leading Technologies can change the balance of power in industry competition. The leading technology at the stage of its implementation is, as a rule, the property, the know-how of one player in the market. A successful leading technology can revolutionize the market and make its owner a leader, even if he was not one before. Therefore, it is important for leading hotels not to miss the emergence of new leading technologies on the market.

A modern hotel is gradually ceasing to be a place for temporary stay of guests and opening access to the world of high-speed communications, interesting entertainment and high-level service. One of the latest developments in the development of IT technologies for the hotel business is the Cisco Systems solution - a “chain hotel”, which allows hotels of varying star ratings to significantly expand the volume of services provided to guests and increase the economic efficiency of their business. Cisco Systems' network hotel, based on open IT standards, provides a unified infrastructure for voice, data, video and is the superior foundation for network solutions that scale in size, access and functionality.

The “smart hotel room”, connected to the hotel reception service through the Fidelio front office interface, integrated with Cisco Systems technologies based on Nevotek VIP Suite and Cisco BBSM, controls guest registration, minibar, telephone communications, Internet access, reference information and additional services. Using Cisco networking solutions, hospitality businesses can meet the personal preferences of each customer while significantly simplifying operational processes. Until now, the telephone in a hotel room has only served as a means of communication. Now it becomes a smart device with high-speed Internet access, allowing you to receive services such as video conferencing, booking air tickets online with the choice of a carrier company, and even creating your own telephone directories with a speed dial function. All these services can be obtained without leaving your hotel room. Today, many large hotels offer guests a personal video service, which brings additional income to the hotel business. Cisco's flexible IT infrastructure allows you to eliminate manual order processing and significantly increase profits by additional features services, such as viewing digital videos of the client's choice, video games, music and a personal interactive guest portal that provides access to a variety of services.

Today, there are two obvious directions for the development of high technologies in the hotel business:

• - complex automation systems;
• - individual high-tech solutions for creating new services and additional service capabilities.

The task of the first direction is, first of all, to simplify and systematize the process of management and control. While the second is focused, for the most part, on generating additional income. A systematic approach is typical for large hotels and chains and includes:

• - comprehensive survey of the hotel infrastructure;
• - formation of an optimal technological development strategy;
• - design of IT architecture;
• - installation and commissioning of IS (information systems);
• - training;
• - service maintenance.

The leading developer of computer hotel management systems (Property Management System, or PMS) in the world is Micros-Fidelio Corporation. Today, over 15,000 hotels in more than 140 countries around the world have chosen the Fidelio system. Micros-Fidelio technologies are the corporate standard for 80 leading international hotel chains, including Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, Radisson, InterContinental, Kempinski, Holiday Inn, Forte/Le Meridien, etc. And in recent years, they have also gained high popularity among hotels that are not part of international hotel chains.

Functional features of the system - a single integrated database for all modules, no need to log out of the system when conducting a night audit, a new Internet application - the Myfidelio.net module, powerful custom reports created using the Crystal Reports toolkit, special configurations for chain hotels, business -hotels, seasonal hotels, country clubs, sanatoriums and boarding houses, a modern interface in the style of the Microsoft Outlook email program.

Another new product is OPERA Enterprise Solution. Unlike traditional hotel systems, OPERA Enterprise Solution is the most comprehensive management solution available today, designed for both independent hotels and hotel chains of different classes. This is a system consisting of modules that can easily be configured and added depending on the wishes of a particular hotel, based on the Oracle database management system (DBMS).

Ultimately, managing a business based on high technology allows hotels to gain additional competitive advantages by offering customers the widest package of services, attracting additional customers and significantly speeding up the process of return on investment in IT.

The use of new technologies that reduce production costs and provide increased comfort to the consumer should become a priority for hotel companies. The use of these technologies will ensure an influx of new customers and will expand the market segment occupied by the hotel. In addition, as the process of globalization continues and gains momentum, a hotel included in the “correct” reservation system will receive undeniable competitive advantages.

Providing technological innovation that improves the user experience and increases the safety and reliability of a product or service represents major marketing benefits. The importance and place of technology in the hospitality industry is enormous. Technologies that facilitate the purchasing process and the demand for a higher quality product or service produced using technological innovations represent not only manufacturing subtleties, but also an urgent market need of the 21st century.

Today, innovation in the process of providing services is already a prerequisite for the development and survival of an enterprise in conditions of fierce competition. Innovation in the hotel business is economically feasible and effective provided that it brings additional income to the hotel, while providing competitive advantages in the market, increases market share, reduces costs, and also improves the service process and increases the efficiency of any hotel enterprise.

The importance of developing a strategy that would allow an enterprise to survive in competition is extremely great. In conditions of fierce competition and a rapidly changing market situation, it is very important not only to focus on the internal state of affairs of the enterprise, but also to develop a long-term strategy for its long-term development.

Let us separate four types of innovations taking place in the hotel business. These are product, marketing, resource and organizational (see Fig. 2.7.).

Fig.2.7.

“Product innovation is aimed at creating new services and introducing new service technologies:

• - Application of modern cleaning technologies (dose of detergents, low-temperature household chemicals);
• - Installation of energy-saving technologies (automatic heating, ventilation and water supply systems);
• - Usage environmental materials(bed linen with antibacterial and bactericidal properties).

"Marketing innovations are associated with the emergence of distribution technologies in electronic booking systems, which allow online management of the booking process.

Resource innovations include the use of an electronic hotel management system and an enterprise resource planning system.

Organizational innovations are associated with the development of a hotel enterprise in the management system and structure: the latest methods of staff training, the purchase of a hotel franchise, the creation of its own hotel chain.”

In the past, many hotel enterprises were able to operate successfully by daily solving internal problems associated with increasing the efficiency of resource use in current operations. At this time, a strategy that ensures the enterprise’s adaptation to a rapidly changing environment is extremely important.

The choice of business development strategy is carried out directly by the management of the hotel enterprise based on an analysis of key factors that reflect its condition and the structure of the service portfolio. Of the key factors, first of all, we study strengths industries and strengths of the enterprise, which are most often decisive when choosing a strategy. It is necessary to strive to make maximum use of available opportunities. At the same time, it is important to look for ways to improve business in new industries that have potential for growth.

The financial capabilities of the enterprise also have a significant impact on the choice of strategy. Entering new markets, developing a new product (service), or moving into a new industry requires significant financial costs. In this regard, firms with greater financial resources are in a much better position to select strategic options.

The qualifications of employees, as well as financial resources, play a significant role in choosing a company's strategy. Deepening and expanding the qualification potential of workers is the most important condition for ensuring the possibility of transition to new production or high-quality technological updating of existing ones. The degree of dependence on the external environment has a great influence on the choice of enterprise strategy.

"Strong external dependence may also be due to legal regulation of the behavior of a hotel enterprise, for example, antimonopoly legislation, social restrictions, environmental influences, and political factors. Another key factor is the interests of the company's management. For example, management likes to take risks or, conversely, it strives to avoid risk by all means. This can be a decisive factor in choosing a strategy. Otherwise, management may set a course for the takeover of another company, based only on the fact that it has decided to settle personal scores or prove something to certain individuals.”

When planning the implementation of a strategy, it is important to take into account the time factor. All opportunities, threats to the enterprise, planned changes always have certain time limits. In this case, it is important to take into account both calendar time and the duration of intervals for the implementation of specific actions to implement the strategy. Most often, the company that successfully manages processes over time achieves success.

The final stage of choosing a strategy is its evaluation. The whole procedure ultimately comes down to one thing: will the chosen strategy lead to achieving the set goals. The strategy is then assessed in the following areas.

These areas include:

• 1. compliance of the chosen strategy with the state and requirements of surrounding entities. It checks to what extent the strategy meets the requirements of the main subjects, the product life cycle, and whether the implementation of the strategy will lead to the emergence of new competitive advantages;
• 2. compliance of the chosen strategy with the potential and capabilities of the company. In this case, the extent to which the chosen strategy corresponds to the capabilities of the personnel, the financial resources of the company, whether the existing structure of the company allows the successful implementation of the strategy, or a verified implementation program over time, is assessed;
• 3. risk tolerance inherent in the strategy. The assessment of the justification of the risk is checked in three areas: the realism of the premises underlying the choice of strategy; negative consequences for the company that can result from failure of the strategy; justification with a possible positive result of the risk of losses from failure to implement the strategy;
• 4. “the effectiveness of the strategy is assessed by the following indicators:
  • - Economic effect - the influence of the strategy on the mass and rate of profit, net profit, payback period of investments, sales volume in the domestic and foreign markets;
  • - Social effect - influence on the conditions and attractiveness of work, the development of culture and education, quality of life";
• 5. environmental effect - influence on the degree of environmental pollution, the complexity of the use of natural resources;
• 6. technical effect - a change in the level of novelty, quality, competitiveness of products (services);
• 7. system effect - additional income from the sale and operation of complementary and related products and machine systems.

Based on the analysis and assessment of possible options, the final decision is made on choosing the most appropriate strategy.

In the economic literature, six types of innovative enterprise strategies are distinguished: offensive, defensive, imitation, dependent, traditional, and “niche” strategy.

Offensive strategy is associated with the enterprise’s desire to achieve technical and market leadership through the creation and introduction of new products and services. This strategy presupposes the constant orientation of the enterprise to the world achievements of science and technology, the presence of scientific developments financed and carried out by the enterprise itself, rapid response and adaptation to new technological opportunities.

Protective The strategy is aimed at maintaining the competitive position of the enterprise in existing markets. This strategy is followed by most businesses that avoid excessive risk. They strive to move one step behind the “innovators” and introduce innovations only after being convinced in advance of their prospects.

Imitation The strategy is used by enterprises that are not pioneers in introducing certain innovations to the market, but have joined their production by purchasing a license from the pioneer company. Sometimes imitation can occur without the permission of leading firms, that is, in a pirated way.

Dependent The strategy differs in that the nature of innovative changes in the enterprise depends on the policies of other firms, which act as the main ones in cooperative technological ties. “Dependent” enterprises do not make independent attempts to change their products, since they are closely related to the requirements imposed on them by the leading enterprise.

Niche strategy is management's response to external signals from the market or institutional environment. Innovative activity here consists of searching for information about the possibilities of finding special niches in existing markets for goods and services that have consumers with an atypical but significant type of needs.

The traditional strategy involves improving the forms of servicing existing products, so it also has features of innovative behavior. The production of goods becomes traditional as a result of the assignment of certain innovative forms to it. a long period its "life cycle". Therefore, if an enterprise, based on a thorough analysis of the market situation and the state of competitors, is quite confident in the stability of the market and consumer preferences for its products, it can consciously adhere to a traditional strategy.

Most often, most managers of hotel enterprises choose a traditional innovative development strategy, while trying to constantly improve the quality of service.

Conclusion by section.

Hotel "Tavria" operates in the hotel services market of Simferopol and is one of the large hotel service enterprises. Currently the hotel has 109 rooms of various categories. The total number of beds is 136. The hotel offers accommodation services for various price categories. Also, guests of Simferopol are provided with additional services that meet their needs. To increase and improve their activities, many hotel enterprises choose one or another development strategy. When choosing one or another innovation strategy, it is important to remember that it must be inextricably linked with the overall development strategy of the hotel enterprise.

The trends that have been developing in the tourism industry in recent years indicate that the further development of hospitality will be carried out through the widespread introduction of innovations. Further technical progress, the emergence and implementation of basic innovations (nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc.), and the widespread use of knowledge will have a significant impact.

Innovation in tourism should be considered as a permanent, global and dynamic process. Researchers identify two main vectors along which innovative technologies in the tourism industry are developing - improving the quality of the tourism product and introducing new forms of tourism services.

The first vector is associated with the global process of globalization, which affects all spheres of human activity. The development of means of communication is erasing spatial barriers between parts of the world and continents.

One of the most important limitations in Russia’s transition to an innovative path of development is the problem of Russia’s weak position in the global market for innovation and high-tech products and services. The volume of the global market for science-intensive products is currently estimated at 2 trillion. $300 billion. Of this amount, the United States accounts for 39%, Japan - 30%, Germany - 16%. Russia's share is only 0.3%. With regard to the export of patents and licenses from Russia, it should be noted that, despite its insignificant overall volume, more than half is accounted for by transactions on the primitive assignment of copyrights to inventions. This reflects the inability of the domestic economy to utilize its own research and development activities.

Among other problems raised by tourism, the problem of service and hospitality is very important. The introduction of innovations in this area is the way to solve these problems. In a number of countries, the hotel business, which ensures the functioning of the tourism sector of the economy, has become a leading industry, guaranteeing GDP growth and employment for the bulk of the population. Statistics claim that the tourism industry contributes 3.8% of global GDP directly and more than 10% when indirect influence is taken into account.

Today, the hospitality industry in Russia is undergoing significant changes. In large cities, they are already accustomed to such concepts as “hotel chains or networks”, “franchising”, Management Company etc. However, there are some challenges to innovation: change occurs more slowly in regions, and new management and social innovations face many obstacles.

Currently, there are almost 8 thousand hotels in the country, while in 2005 there were only 4.8 thousand. The number of Russian citizens living in hotels, sanatorium-resort organizations and recreation organizations in 2005 amounted to 28.5 million people, of which 18.5 million people lived in hotels. In 2010, these figures increased to 30.5 and 21.3 million people, respectively.

There is an annual increase in the volume of tourism services provided to the Russian population in Russia, which in 2005 amounted to 13.8 billion rubles, and in 2010 19.8 billion rubles, which is 43% higher than in 2005.

The hotel industry is currently not only the main link in the hospitality industry, but also the basis of the entire tourism sector, since it (including services of any type of accommodation facilities) accounts for about 65% of industry workers.

With the growth of paid services, it is necessary to improve the quality of service through innovation. Successful “innovators” of tourism prove with their experience that today the creation of innovations and their implementation is not only desirable, but also necessary in the competitive struggle as a factor of survival. An example of this is the ever-increasing competition between tourism enterprises.

An innovative approach in the hotel business can be reduced to the use of not only advanced information technologies and the release of new products, but also a whole range of innovations affecting all areas and areas of management (quality management, finance, personnel, etc.), with the most effective innovation policy enterprises will be in the case of the simultaneous introduction of various types of innovations.

The second vector is determined by the need of residents of megacities for a break from man-made and information overload, the desire to be alone with nature and themselves, and improve their health in environmentally friendly areas. City dwellers expect peace and tranquility of rural life, clean air, silence and natural products, comfortable living conditions, homely atmosphere, reasonable prices, a feeling of closeness to nature, gaining new experiences, entertainment opportunities for children and leisure activities for adults. Along with this, the popularity of ecotourism, thalassotherapy, medical and recreational holidays, weekends at equestrian centers and golf clubs is increasing, where a person gets the opportunity for psychological relief, relaxation, and restoration of physical strength. New types of services are successfully finding their niches in the tourism industry, thereby creating fundamentally new types of tourism.

Also, along with the development of traditional tourism, its new forms are emerging, including more innovative, specialized, “immigrant”, custom-made and based on Western experience.

In connection with the process of globalization of the world economy, congress tourism is becoming one of the most popular areas in the industry. According to international statistics, it accounts for approximately 10-12% of business tourism volume.

Russia does not remain aloof from global trends. Due to the constant increase in exhibition space, the number of international events held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Sochi increases every year. Regional centers of the Russian Federation such as Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk, etc. are becoming in demand for congress tourism. Russian capital According to official data, there are about 190 hotels. Of these: 80% of two-star hotels and 90% of three-star hotels have conference facilities. The situation is different with four- and five-star hotels. All of them offer appropriate services for business travelers. Therefore, business tourism relies on them.

Modern Russian hotels are not only a means of accommodating congress participants, but also have everything necessary for holding them: large (up to 1,500 people) and small conference rooms, meeting rooms; possibility of renting high-tech equipment, including for simultaneous translation. Unlike convention centers, hotels and boarding houses offer more opportunities for combining work and leisure.

It is known that the main problem Successful business development directly depends on the speed of transmission and exchange of information, its relevance, and timely receipt. This applies to any tourism enterprise, that is, the successful development of tourism organizations involves the widespread use latest technologies, accelerating the exchange of information over a distance.

Today, the hotel industry uses quite a lot of the latest innovative computer technologies: global computer reservation systems, integrated communication networks, multimedia systems, contactless cards, management information systems, etc. The Russian market mainly presents such global reservation systems as: Amadeus, Galileo ,Wordspan. The high reliability and convenience of computer reservation systems CRS (Computer Reservation System) contributed to their rapid and widespread distribution.

In recent years, many hotel businesses have created their own Internet sites. This direction should be considered as very promising. On the Web sites of travel companies and accommodation facilities, you can see the interior of a booked hotel room, a cruise ship cabin, and you can clarify the list of services down to the menu in a restaurant. Visiting online forums on travel Web sites allows experienced travelers to learn first-hand useful details that will come in handy on a trip and when visiting a particular country. With the development of telecommunications, there are no information secrets left in the world.

While European tourism companies conduct almost all of their activities at the Internet level, in Russia this system is still relatively poorly developed. Although, positive trends have been identified.

In Europe it is observed in Lately electronic attack on the tourism business. E-commerce has emerged. Its advantages are obvious - savings on agent commissions, reduction in costs for publishing advertising and information materials, creation of non-traditional sales channels, etc. According to experts from the World Tourism Organization, about 25% - 40% of all sales of tourism services in the near future will be realized through e-commerce.

A hotel automation software package (hotel complex automation system) is a set of interconnected software tools that provide automation of all management functions. According to forecasts, in subsequent years 90% of services will be sold by such Internet companies. In this case, commissions will be halved.

In recent years, the share of independent airline ticket bookings online has been growing rapidly. Today in Europe, every third ticket is purchased on specialized websites or airline websites - this is more than 400 million people worldwide. Russian airlines began offering this service relatively recently, and the share of online air ticket sales is still small - less than 1%. However, in the very near future the situation should change radically.

Currently, about 30% of tickets sold in the world are electronic, and in the United States their share exceeds 70%. An electronic air ticket is more convenient than a paper ticket. The main difference from the usual online booking is that after choosing a route on the website and paying by bank card, you need to print out your boarding pass yourself. There is no need to visit the sales office or be required to arrive at the airport in advance. In addition, the electronic ticket cannot be lost. Another nice thing: many foreign airlines offer a five percent discount when purchasing an electronic ticket. Russian carriers are not yet able to offer passengers this full-fledged electronic service - legislation does not allow it. A ticket can already be booked and paid for through the website of the carrier or agent, but for its paper counterpart you still have to go to the ticket office or pick up the ticket at the airport. The difficulties with the transition to an electronic ticket are that the ticket is a form of strict reporting, and Russian tax services do not accept electronic analogs for auditing. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, the document must be in paper form and certified accordingly.

According to calculations by the Transport Clearing House, which carries out mutual settlements between carriers and agencies, the production of one paper ticket now costs approximately 10 rubles. The volume of transportation by Russian companies is about 35 million people per year, and on paper alone, with a complete transition to electronic tickets, it would be possible to save up to 350 million rubles annually.

One of the main directions of innovation in the hotel and tourism business is also the introduction multimedia technologies, in particular - reference books, booklets, catalogs. Currently, travel companies and hotels publish directories and catalogs in books, on video cassettes, on laser discs, and on the Internet.

The use of multimedia technologies makes it possible to quickly provide information to a potential guest, thereby allowing you to quickly and accurately select the tourism product that the guest needs. Electronic hotel catalogs allow you to virtually travel through rooms of various categories, restaurant halls, congress centers, lobby, view complete information about the hotel enterprise, get acquainted with the range of services provided, the system of benefits and discounts.

Among the negative factors hindering the development of the tourism industry, researchers identified fear of terrorism and disasters, as well as price fluctuations in the real estate market.

The problem of ensuring the safety of a hotel enterprise is also solved with the help of innovative technologies. Thus, in the hospitality industry, guest safety can be ensured by: a television surveillance system, an access control system, and a security system. But the percentage of enterprises equipped with protection is very small.

Another effective tool is in-room electronic safes. This innovative service exists in four and five star hotels. Installing an electronic lock system is one of the most effective preventative measures against theft. The introduction of this system, according to directors of Moscow hotels, has reduced the theft of things from hotel rooms by 95%. It is practically impossible to forge a specific key, and it is also possible to determine which cards were used to open the number, at what time and who issued them.

In the innovative activities of tourism enterprises, it is necessary to take into account the innovative potential of the employees themselves (to positively and critically perceive new information, increase general and professional knowledge, put forward new competitive ideas, find solutions to non-standard problems and new methods for solving traditional problems, use knowledge for the practical implementation of innovations). The business world is changing quickly, knowledge is becoming outdated, and in order to be professionally competent, a modern manager, as well as any tourism worker, must constantly update their knowledge.

In order to develop innovative technologies in the field of tourism, the domestic tourism market faces the following tasks: increasing the overall responsibility of the government, which relies on the development of tourism; ensuring security measures and timely provision of information to tourists; strengthening the role of public-private partnerships in the development of tourism infrastructure.

However, despite the growth in the number of hospitality enterprises and their efficiency, this industry cannot be called innovative, like the entire Russian economy.

At the same time, the existing statistical accounting system in the Russian Federation records innovative activity only in the communications industry, as well as in the field of services related to the use of computer technology and infocommunication technologies (ICT). This makes it extremely difficult to assess the overall level of innovation activity and the contribution of the hospitality sector to the development of the Russian economy, as well as to conduct full-fledged international comparisons.

Therefore, the analysis of indicators of innovation activity in the hospitality sector can only be carried out in the service sector related to computer technology, since hospitality enterprises actively use the Internet in their activities and to promote their services, and, accordingly, computing technologies.

Analysis of the share of costs for technological innovations in the volume of services provided by organizations industrial production and the service sector by type of economic activity (Figure 2.2.1) did not give a definite development trend in the hospitality sector in particular, but it shows that it is enterprises in this sector that allocate the largest portion of funds to innovation, which indicates strong innovative activity in the field of computer technology, and at the same time, hospitality.

Figure 2.2.1. Specific gravity costs of technological innovation.

Analysis of the share of enterprises carrying out technological innovations (Figure 2.2.2) shows a slight increase in the number of active enterprises in innovation activities.

Figure 2.2.2. Share of organizations carrying out technological innovations

Legend of figures 2.2.1 and 2.2.2:

• 1) total
• 2) industrial production
• 3) extraction of fuel and energy minerals
• 4) extraction of other minerals
• 5) manufacturing industries
• 6) production and distribution of electricity, gas and water
• 7) communication
• 8) activities related to the use of computer technology and information technology

The following diagram (Figure 2.2.3) compares Russia in terms of innovation activity with other countries. It can be seen that our country is among the lagging countries in terms of innovation activity, since only 0.8% of GDP goes to the development of innovations, which is almost 5 times less than neighboring Finland.

Figure 2.2.3. Comparison of countries by research costs

The following table compares Russia on three parameters with other countries. It shows that Russia has the smallest share of innovation-active enterprises and expenditures on innovation activities; accordingly, our economy produces, on the whole, the least innovative products and services.

On the one hand, this is bad, it shows the backwardness of the Russian economy as a whole, but on the other hand, it indicates a great potential opportunity for hospitality enterprises to increase their competitiveness by increasing their innovation activities, since newer services are more likely to find demand among consumers.

Table 2.2.1.

Comparison of countries by innovation activity

	Share of organizations carrying out technological innovations in the total number of organizations surveyed, %%	Share of innovative goods new to the market in the total volume of shipped goods** of innovatively active enterprises, %%	Share of costs for technological innovation in the total volume of goods shipped**, %%
Great Britain
Germany
Ireland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Portugal
Finland

• * Data for Russia are presented for 2009, for foreign countries - for 2004-2006.
• ** Including services provided and work performed.

The study of innovation processes, the reasons for the emergence of innovations, and the development of methods for their implementation is of significant practical and scientific interest.

Technologies in the field of hospitality are also developing quite rapidly. This is due to the fact that hoteliers face two main tasks: to get as many customers as possible by organizing the maximum number of sales, and to win over the guest by making him a regular customer. It is very difficult to achieve these tasks without innovative solutions. The fight for every guest, especially in times of crisis, requires hotels to modernize both in technology and in consciousness.

Obstacles to the introduction of innovative technologies are usually the following: the cost of the innovative development itself, the need to adapt the enterprise itself to it, and, finally, the fact that managers, as a rule, are focused on generating income from the current activities of the enterprise. Proving to the owner that this or that innovative solution will allow for greater income in the future is a difficult task.

In the service sector, it is quite difficult to classify emerging innovations, since they are often complex in nature. For example, the transition of a hotel association to a particular reservation system is a process innovation. But if a hotel association operates only within a city or region, then such an innovation can be considered a micro-innovation. If the hotel association includes various hotel chains located in several countries or the decision is made by the national hotel association for implementation throughout the country, then this is a macroinnovation.

Classification of innovations plays important role, since it allows not only to streamline existing ideas, but also is a means of searching and identifying poorly studied issues of innovation activity. The classification of innovations in tourism is especially difficult due to the multifaceted nature of the object of research, the vagueness of its functional structure and the trends towards globalization of the territorial organization of the world tourism process.

Most widespread in modern practice tourism received the following types of innovations (according to the criterion of the carrier of the innovation process):

• 1. Product Innovation Group
• 2. Group of information technology innovations
• 3. Group of organizational and managerial innovations.

Product innovation - development and implementation of technologically new and technologically improved products. Toward product innovation in hotel service This includes the emergence of new types of additional services, for example, Internet access in the room, accommodation with animals, etc. The introduction of process technological innovations in hotels is associated with equipping production processes with modern equipment and providing comfortable living conditions.

Product innovations include the development of new services offered to guests in hotels. For example, in Crimea, many hotels began to develop a medical direction, positioning themselves as health centers. Some hotels are limited to cosmetology and SPA, others offer preventive and diagnostic services. In particular, the hotel-boarding house "Vremena Goda - Yalta" owns its own medical center with a general therapeutic profile. The Center for Restorative and Aesthetic Medicine opened in the Yalta Palmira Palace Hotel in 2009.

In the global practice of the hotel business, product innovation consists of attracting new types of resources to the hospitality process or creating resources with predetermined properties and a new target function. The choice of objects in route and stationary tourism is increasingly subject to the requirement of exoticism (hotel placement in trees (Germany), lighthouses (province of Friesland, the Netherlands), in wine barrels (Rudsheim, Germany), under water (Key Largo, Florida USA); business conferences in the inflatable conference room (“Sphere”) (Moscow region).

It is useful, in our opinion, to give several examples of such innovations:

• 1. Hotel “Aurora Express” - a luxurious train hotel. This train was assembled literally into carriages, each of which lived its own life in other trains traveling around railways United States more than half a century ago. Most of the compartments are decorated in accordance with the interior fashion of the beginning of the century; a special romantic atmosphere reigns here.
• 2. Aurora Ice Museum Hotel. The unique palace, built in Alaska by champion ice carver Steve Bryce, is rightfully considered the most elegant ice hotel in the world. At the hotel, guests can while away the evening in a unique bar where drinks are poured directly into ice glasses, visit a spacious living room with artfully selected lighting, and relax in a bathhouse fed by hot springs. In recent years, ice hotels have appeared in a number of other places.
• 3. The Benesse House Hotel is built on the southern tip of Naoshima Island. The main architect and mastermind of the project, Tadao Ando, ​​formulated the main goal of the project as follows: “A complete fusion of nature, architecture and art.” The hotel building, made of stone, glass, concrete and steel, is located in such a way that from the windows of the rooms there is a stunning view of the territory adjacent to the hotel, which is also part of the exhibition.
• 4. Fur ґnґ Feathers Rainforest Tree Houses (Australia) offers a unique combination of luxury, privacy and wilderness. Located on the coast, in the middle of a dense forest, it has been repeatedly recognized as the best in the Ecotourism category. The idea was picked up in Sweden: 6 rooms with different design concepts will be located in the trees in Harads, approximately 60 km from the Arctic Circle.
• 5. Hotel “Jules Undersea Lodge 4*” - an underwater house with all amenities named after the great writer Jules Verne. The main attraction of this hotel is the huge meter-long windows in each room, from which a stunning view of the life of the endless water depths opens.
• 6. Hotel at the bottom of the ocean: On January 15, 2010, the Poseidon Undersea Resort (Poseidon Island) opened. Poseidon Undersea Resort consists of 48 bungalows, but the most interesting is located under water - at a depth of 15 m on the basis of an underwater station from 1962. It consists of 24 capsule rooms plus the luxurious Nautilus suite with an area of ​​300 sq.m. The rooms, in the form of removable blocks, are attached to a pipe-corridor - if desired, the capsules are separated from the corridor and raised to the surface.
• 7. The Kokopelli's Cave Hotel is a huge cave in the rock in the mountains of New Mexico. This cave is located at a depth approximately equal to the height of a seven-story building. In order to get to his room, a tourist must go down seventy meters down the tunnel or using a trolley. Of course, there are no various entertainments typical of hotels here, since the entrance to the hotel is located on a secluded rock, but the thrill is guaranteed. The hotel room maintains a constant temperature.
• 8. The Parador de Canadas del Teide hotel was built in a crater extinct volcano Teide (Tenerife). The hotel is the only building within the Teide National Park. The windows offer breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and the top of the volcano.
• 9. Hotel “Propeller Island City Lodge 4*” (Berlin). The hotel has 45 rooms and each has a unique style. The rooms of a mini-hotel, like its dining room (“restaurant” would not fit here), corridors or other premises are a crazy flight of imagination of the artist. For example, a room with a bed floating in the air; an apartment with countless mirrors that intricately reflect a huge black and white sofa, which is the only piece of furniture in this room, the “Upside Down” room.
• 10. Hotel for millionaires "Excelsior" in Rome - 10 thousand dollars per night - a huge bedroom with a covered terrace, six additional rooms, study, dining room with access to another terrace, gym, mini-cinema, swimming pool with hydromassage, sauna, another terrace, another bedroom, marble staircase and a separate elevator. And in the wine cellar, built into the wall of the dining room, 160 bottles of selected wines are stored.
• 11. Robinson Crusoe Island Hotel is located on the Chilean island of Mas a Tierra. You can spend 1-2 nights in the very cave where Robinson lived. There are beaches, bays, mountains, valleys, gorges all around.
• 12. Airship Traveling project - a flying five-star hotel. A futuristic concept that represents a closed system in the shape of an airship. This way, comfort and flexibility are ensured. After landing, the "blimp" deploys an anchor, which secures it in place. The hotel is in the air thanks to the use of helium and automatically turns towards a more favorable wind direction. A series of solar panels installed on the roof of the vessel allows the use of solar energy for hotel food.

The last decade has seen significant development in one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism - the club vacation ownership system, better known as timeshare. The club holiday system has existed for more than 25 years and is still one of the most progressively developing sectors of the tourism business, which has already proven its extreme efficiency. Every year, more and more new clubs are put into operation, and an increasing number of families prefer this type of recreation to any other.

Advantages of a timeshare compared to a stay in a regular hotel:

ь Possibility to transfer your weeks for temporary use (rent) to marketing companies for an agreed amount;

ь Possibility to donate your weeks or pass them on by inheritance;

ь A good way for businesses and organizations to solve the problem of purchasing and maintaining a resort for their employees and their families;

ь The timeshare system is especially beneficial for families with children

ь An economical way to spend your holiday while providing a higher level of comfort and service compared to traditional types recreation.

ь Among the advantages of a club vacation, especially noteworthy is its advantage for family and youth recreation and the presence of a stocked kitchen, which allows you to save money and also freely build your daily routine compared to regular hotels.

Unfortunately, in Ukraine the prevalence of the timeshare market is poorly developed. At the moment, the issue of the legislative framework regulating this type of recreation is very important. But it is precisely the limited knowledge in this area that allows little attention to be paid to this problem. An important component of using a timeshare is knowledge of the advantages, disadvantages and possible risks of purchasing, owning and disposing of it. Organization of recreation for Ukrainian and foreign citizens using the timeshare system is undoubtedly of great importance for increasing innovative technologies for running the hotel business.

Information technology innovations

Development of new types of material and technical support for hotel services that improve the quality of services (for example, equipping hotels with a voice mail system, satellite reception, closed-circuit video network, electronic information on television (account control, automatic calculation), computers with a modem, modern smoke detectors, silent air conditioners and etc.). Examples of these types of innovations include the following global hotels or services:

• · Network St. Regis is offering its guests a new service: wireless communication with staff. Thus, the company will provide guests with the simplest and fastest solution to any issues. Personal butlers in the St. Regis perform many different functions: meeting and seeing off guests at the airport, booking a table in a restaurant, a chair in a theater or a hall for business meeting, help to disassemble and assemble things, ensure that all special wishes of guests are fulfilled, and so on.
• · Interactive television. LG Electronics has begun producing a fundamentally new series of TVs for the hotel market and the corporate segment. Equipped with many special functions, they provide maximum comfort of use with minimal operating costs and they guarantee efficient work results.
• · The Regent Berlin offers a special kind of shopping experience: from the comfort of your room, guests can purchase men's and women's clothing from the Boss collection. This type of service is primarily aimed at business guests, who at any time may receive an invitation to a reception, party or concert, and not have a suitable toilet.
• · Providing multifunctional services, in particular, equipping hotel rooms with modernized entertainment systems - a fundamentally new source of income, significantly increasing the profitability of hotels.
• · Peninsula Hotels rooms include nail dryers, outdoor temperature and humidity indicators, Internet radio with 3,000 stations and three levels of lighting. You can take your phone from your room with you by switching it to the 3G network when the guest leaves the hotel. Instead of the “Do not disturb” sign, an indicator lights up, turned on by a button on the bedside remote control.
• · Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is used at the Plaza Hotel. The door opens after reading information about the room number and length of stay from the card chip. New chain Starwood Hotels plans to open its first hotels equipped with locks that will initially use traditional key cards but can later be upgraded to read RFID cards.
• · French hotel company Accor, operator of Sofitel, Red Roof Inns and other brands. recently began testing a new locking system in two rooms, one at the Hotel Sofitel Le Faubourg and the other at the Pullman Paris Bercy (formerly the Sofitel Bercy), both located in Paris. New locks allow guests with advanced cell phones or communicators to “teach” their devices to open doors.
• · Nine Zero Hotel in Boston, a Kimpton chain, installed locks with iris scanning technology in the penthouse. When a guest checks in at the Reception Desk, a hotel employee takes an iris photo. The guest opens the door of the room using his iris, which is identified by the lock reader when the guest stands in front of the door.
• · The SoHo Loft Hotel, a seven-room hotel in New York City, has installed fingerprint locks in five of its rooms. I escort the guest to the lock of the door of his room, where a fingerprint is taken from his finger. The guest can then open the door by pressing the lock with their index finger and entering the digital code provided upon check-in (as an additional level of security). To maintain confidentiality, fingerprints are deleted every few days.

The next type of information technology innovation is the introduction of computer (information) technologies into the hotel reservation and booking system.

New Internet systems make it possible to obtain information about market trends, customer needs, potential customers and even competitors' products in "real time", reliably and without intermediaries. Modern systems Internet advertising is able to identify the respondent (user, potential consumer) by various characteristics: gender, age, region of residence, etc., and broadcast to him only those advertisements that meet his interests and requirements that he meets. In addition to analysis and advertising, there are online booking systems (online trading), which also allow you to determine the most suitable product for the consumer without leaving your home or office, by paying and registering the travel product through Internet payment systems.

Hotel management systems (HMS -- Hotel Management Systems) belong to a special class software, called PMS (Property Management Systems - real estate management systems).

Hotel systems allow you to automate all stages of guest service, from booking tickets, check-in and ending with final payment, as well as basic business processes - from the work of maids to the organization of reporting at the enterprise. In addition, they provide management of all hotel services and systems available in the room.

Recently, interest in hotel systems has become very, very lively. If five years ago there were three or four companies on the market, this year there are already more than a dozen.

All HMS have a more or less similar structure, consisting of registration and guest service modules (Front Office), accounting and management service modules (Back Office) and interfaces to external systems (Fig. A.2, Appendix A).

Since 2002, there has been an international organization, Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), which develops standard interfaces for software solutions used in the hotel business.

Fiscal registrars (cash registers). The management system must interact with registrars through which all monetary transactions are carried out, as well as with payment card authorization systems with which guests can pay.

Access control systems. Nowadays, hotel rooms are equipped with electronic locks of both “offline” (standalone) and “online” (networked) types. In the second case, information about personnel access, unauthorized access attempts, battery charge level (for locks with a wireless interface), etc. is transmitted to the control program in real time. Electronic hotel locks are a separate market, with several well-known brands present (Onity, Salta, Inhova, SmartLock, etc.), but new manufacturers are constantly appearing.

Energy saving. An addition to the room access system is an energy-saving pocket, which has two purposes: storing a key card and (in the simplest case) switching the power supply to the room. The HMS can also interface with a building management system, which allows you to set the climate in the room depending on the presence of guests in it. For example, when a guest appears in the room, the system recognizes his card and turns on the comfort mode. During cleaning, the maid can turn on the ventilation mode.

Online booking. Many hotels place on their websites (as well as on the websites of travel companies or intermediary firms) an online booking module, with which the visitor can independently select a room and book it. This allows you to increase sales, but it is important that the data on requests goes directly into the database, otherwise a situation may arise when one room is booked several times.

Tariffs for telephone conversations. Telephone services provided to the guest in the room are taken into account by tarifficators, which transmit data to HMS. If the room is not rented as a whole, but by beds, each guest is given a personal authorization code. Telephone charges are included in the guest's final bill.

Internet tarifficators also exist, but apparently they are not widespread. The cost of unlimited Internet connection today is low, and the purchase of an expensive billing system may not pay off. Representatives of most companies that install HMS expressed the opinion that Wi-Fi in hotels should be free, just like in restaurants, cafes, etc.

Pay TV systems. The guest can be offered the service of viewing several paid channels that show films without advertising, or “video on demand”. These programs, to which the hotel purchases access from a content provider, are broadcast over the hotel's internal cable network. Pay TV is a separate system with its own accounting, but thanks to the connection with HMS, the use of the service is also included in the guest’s final bill upon check-out.

Automatic minibars. Typically, the contents of minibars in rooms are checked by maids, but this equipment can also be automated. There are automatic minibars and their management systems that transmit information about the goods consumed by the guest to the HMS in real time. The seizure of goods is controlled using weight sensors, although there are also models that work with barcodes. In any case, automatic minibars still remain exotic for Ukraine; the number of hotels where they are available is estimated to be literally just a few. The installation of such devices is justified in hotels with 500 rooms.

Restaurant automation systems. The hotel restaurant has its own management system, which, among other useful functions, provides automation of order entry and transfer to the kitchen, inventory planning and control of the movement of goods, monitoring of the situation in the hall and protection against abuse by staff. It is important to organize service for hotel guests in such a way that bills for meals in the restaurant are included in the final bill, which is paid upon check-out at the reception desk. To do this, the restaurant system requests from the hotel information about the guest and his current balance, returning information about accrued services.

Almost all manufacturing companies have both hotel and restaurant systems, so if the hotel and restaurant have software from the same company installed, there will be no problems. Moreover, some systems can technically manage both a hotel and a restaurant at the same time. If the hotel and restaurant have systems different manufacturers,the interaction between them depends on the agreement ,between the developers. Some programs cannot be interfaced - at least, the problem of harmonizing reporting formats and transferring data from one system to another is not always solved. In such cases, the hotel and restaurant “live their own lives.”

In Ukraine, hotel systems appeared in the mid-90s of the 20th century. Currently, there are about a dozen products on the market from different manufacturers, most of them are foreign (American OPERA, Fidelio and Epitome, Russian Interotel, Edelweiss, Servio, R-Keeper, InStyle), although there are also domestic developments(ProHotel, SuperHotel, B52, etc.). Many foreign manufacturers work through distributors, who can also act as installers themselves.

When choosing a management system, a hotelier must weigh a number of factors, such as the reliability of the product, the quality of the installer's work and the level of post-project support, supported interfaces and expansion flexibility, not to mention price.

The main hotel systems present on the Ukrainian market are presented in Figure A.1, Appendix A. Many modern software systems that are used in Ukrainian hotels were brought from Russia and America. Let's take a closer look next different types HMS:

a) HMS from America.

Let’s start our review of the brands present in Ukraine with the OPERA and Fidelio hotel systems of the MICROS-Fidelio corporation. The implementation of these software products in Ukraine is carried out by the regional representative office of the HRS company - its office in Kyiv was opened in 2004. The Fidelio system is positioned as a solution for all types of hotels: chain and independent hotels, country clubs, motels and business hotels. Fidelio v8 is designed to solve various problems: from sales, reservations, guest accommodation and organization of conferences and banquets to providing data for financial control and management accounting of enterprise activities. The built-in customer relationship management (CRM) module allows you to take into account the wishes of the guest “down to the size of your slippers.”

MICROSFidelio solutions are the corporate standard for international hotel chains such as Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, Radisson, Intercontinental, Kempinski, Holiday Inn, Le Meridian, etc. In Ukraine, HRS clients include more than 50 hotels - from small (8-room Villa Ambassador sanatorium in Truskavets) to large (1,140-room Yalta-Intourist hotel).

OPERA PMS v5 has a number of features that simplify the management of chain hotels. The centralized reservation system allows you to control the availability of rooms in all hotels included in the chain and make reservations in several of them at once. Information about guests and partner companies flows into a centralized customer information database, integrated with the reservation system; In addition, the system ensures the exchange of information about guest profiles between all hotels.

The Epitome PMS hotel management system is a product of the American company SoftBrands. The international company Libra Hospitality is implementing the system in Ukraine. Epitome PMS is built on a modular principle and is positioned as a product for hotels of any type, category and size - from small hotels to large hotel complexes and chains. Currently, the company's clients include independent hotels, motels, resorts, and hotel chains. At the moment, Epitome PMS has been implemented in approximately 30 Ukrainian hotels and resort complexes - in particular, in the Premier Palace and Dnepr hotels (Kiev), Dnister (Lviv), Central (Donetsk), and in business hotel "Aurora" (Kharkov), resort complex "Rixos-Prykarpattya" (Truskavets), etc. .

b) HMS from Russia.

"Interhotel". This Russian research and production enterprise was founded in 1993 on the basis of several factories and institutes. The representative office in Ukraine opened in 2000. The Interhotel hotel system is called “Hotel-2.3” and is designed for a wide variety of hotels: from two to five stars, from ten to thousands of rooms. It has a standard set of modules (“Receptionist”, “Cashier”, “Reservation”, “Household Services”, “Reports”, etc.), and these modules can be supplemented with new features. At the moment, “Hotel-2.3” is installed in approximately fifty Ukrainian hotels.

The Edelweiss program was developed in 1996 by the St. Petersburg company Reksoft. In Ukraine, its exclusive distributor is Alfa-USiEl LLC (UCL), which carries out installations. At the moment, in Ukraine, “Edelweiss” has been implemented at 20 facilities - in particular, in the Kyiv hotels “Sport” and “Verkhovyna” (in the latter, the scalability of the program made it possible to increase the number of rooms served from 50 to 150 rooms). In 2010, the program was installed in the hotel complex (park hotel) “Porto Mare” in Alushta.

The Servio HMS system was developed by the Russian company NKT. Hotel program entered the market about three years ago. It was originally written for the Reikartz hotel chain. The developer's partner in Ukraine is the Expert Solution company. It provides installation and further support of the system. Among the projects of 2010 we can name the hotels “Gioconda” (Odessa), “Dolphin” (Koktebel), “Opera” (Lvov), in total the number of installations in our country is about 15 objects different sizes(then 9 to 230 numbers). The last option is designed for large hotels: the larger the number of rooms and, accordingly, the volume of displayed data, the more cumbersome and slow the interface becomes. Another feature of the program is the presence of a data replication function between the central reservation office and client companies. All information about requests goes directly into the database, so there is no repeat booking of the same rooms.

The main activity of the Russian company UCS, founded in 1992 and operating in Ukraine through a network of regional dealers, is restaurant automation. The R-Keeper program developed by this company is one of the most popular in this market. For hotels, UCS has created the Shelter program, which, however, does not have any special attractions. The number of Shelter implementations in Ukraine is estimated at about a dozen objects.

c) Domestic developments.

The ProHotel system was developed by Top Point IT in 2002. The product was created to order for the automation of one of the Ukrainian hotels; over the course of three to four years, the program was refined and added to. There is also a simplified version of SimpleHotel, designed for hotels with up to 15 rooms. At the moment, among the customers of ProHotel and SimpleHotel there are about forty hotels and boarding houses - both three- and four-star.

B52 - development of the Odessa company "Studio PLUS". At the moment the program “B52. Hotel”, part of this family, is installed in approximately 30 hotels, inns and tourist complexes. Program capabilities in terms of booking, accommodation, housekeeping services, etc. basically the same as other similar products. Among the features, it is worth highlighting the functions of club management and payments using club cards.

The SuperHotel hotel and restaurant automation system, created, in particular, for Euro 2012, has existed for only three years, but has already had several implementations - for example, in the Ruta hotel (Zatoka town, Odessa region) with 1000 rooms, where the HMS is integrated with an access control system designed to manage parking and food services. It is intended for very small hotels (up to 10 rooms) and restaurants, where one workplace is enough.

The next, no less important type of information and technological innovation is the greening of tourist service technologies. New service technologies are aimed at reducing the raw material, water, and energy intensity of tourism products and introducing closed technological cycles. Globally, the movement is led by the London-based International Hotel Environment Initiative (IHEI), which is represented by 11,200 hotels in 111 countries. It encourages its members to conduct business in more environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways (installing energy-efficient lighting and equipment in hotels, purchasing biodegradable household products, not changing towels and bed linen daily to save water, etc.).

Despite such a rapidly developing atmosphere of information innovation in the hotel business of Ukraine, there are a number of problems through which our state cannot achieve high standards of customer service:

• 1) In Ukraine there is no unified information database of Ukrainian hotels and other places of temporary stay (motels, hostels, mini-hotels), accessible to the target audience (end consumer, travel agencies).
• 2) Information resources that are on the market are either limited in the information provided, or contain outdated information, and most importantly, do not solve the client’s main issue: lack of information about the availability of free numbers on-line.
• 3) The electronic sales sector is not developed, and this entails a possible low level of preparation for large-scale events.
• 4) Low level communications with the client (lack of a website for some hotels, busy reservation department);
• 5) Lack of attention to the Ukrainian consumer;
• 6) Lack of the ability to pay for rooms on-line in most hotels;
• 7) Impossibility of receiving cash remotely (no credit card).

Group of organizational and managerial innovations.

It is obvious that the introduction of innovative technologies is an integral condition for increasing the competitiveness of an enterprise, while the positioning of a tourist destination requires the allocation of large blocks of innovation, since each block requires its own mechanisms, methods of reproducing innovations, subjects, etc.

The work proposes a system of organizational and managerial innovation blocks: typology of hotel enterprises; material and technical equipment of hotels; information, reference and cartographic support of technological and marketing processes; innovation infrastructure; hotel security system; staffing of innovation activities (Fig. B.1, Appendix B).

Thus, the main directions of organizational and managerial innovation are the following:

1. New methods for implementing the marketing cycle in tourism (including a comprehensive study of the tourism market, studying demand, assessing market conditions, forecasting the competitiveness of a tourism product, developing a tourism product concept, sales promotion strategy, advertising company etc.).

Obviously, marketing innovation is equally important in the hotel industry. For example, the spread of hotel chains from the point of view of innovative marketing is presented as benchmarking or improvement innovation in the form the best way business. The mobilization nature of innovation in in this case manifests itself in a combination of centralization and decentralization, small and large forms of business. In the combination of “small in large” (in our case, this is a separate hotel unit in a hotel chain) we find modern version Schumpeter's definition of entrepreneurship as the search for new combinations to ensure innovative activity.

2. New methods of personnel management of a hotel enterprise in order to increase labor productivity and production efficiency (introduction of NOTES, advanced methods of labor standardization, forms of stimulating the quality of service).

We have found that in world practice, hotel innovation infrastructure is closely interconnected with staffing, where two interaction scenarios are used: the presence of its own training base and the interaction of hotel schools with hotels.

An effective solution to this problem is the development of innovative infrastructure in the form of the creation of an educational and training hotel. First of all, in Ukraine it has been established that only 20% of hotel HR representatives agree to hire graduates without work experience. The main reasons for this are: insufficient theoretical training of young specialists (27%), their lack of experience (13%), costs for additional education (10%).

However, understanding the importance additional education, almost all participants in the hotel business (85%) use various training programs in personnel work, including on the basis of their own hotels, of which 65% do this regularly. When assessing existing additional educational programs, a number of inherent shortcomings of these programs are noted, mainly related to the practical side of education. Given these shortcomings, 30% of hotel enterprises are interested in creating a regional training hotel.

The model of the practical training process in an educational and training hotel consists of mastering professions and obtaining practical skills in the production departments of the hotel and training laboratories, which should cover the main areas of tourism and hotel activities, and are intended for practical training close to the real conditions of tourism, hotel and restaurant service. In these laboratories, it is important to use professional software associated with a service automation system, conducting marketing research, developing business projects, etc.; specialized equipment for hotel and restaurant business; modern exhibition and conference equipment.

Based on these goals, a basic model of an educational and training hotel has been developed, which, on the one hand, ensures the interests of the hotel and educational markets, and on the other hand, it allows it to act as a competitive enterprise (Figure B.1, Appendix B).

3. New loyalty programs in the hotel business.

In the hotel industry, loyalty programs or "frequent guest programs" have existed since the early 1980s, starting with the creation of InterContinental Hotel Group's Priority Club Rewards program. Since then, all major hotel companies have begun to create their own versions of loyalty programs and are constantly striving to introduce their “solutions” as the most advantageous offer.

Regular customers in the hotel and restaurant business are very valuable: they bring constant income to the establishment (regular customers make up on average only 20% of guests, but they bring in about 80% of all income). The purpose of a loyalty program is to provide guests with an incentive to return to a particular brand or company, creating a preference for a particular hotel.

In Ukraine, there are the following loyalty programs that the administration can offer to regular customers:

• 1) Fixed discount. Discounts for regular customers from the fixed room price.
• 2) Cumulative discount. The client accumulates a certain number of days spent in a hotel or a certain amount per stay and receives significant benefits.
• 3) Bonus points. For each night spent at the hotel, the guest receives bonus points, which can be used to “buy” a free night at the hotel, lunch in a restaurant, additional services (visiting the gym or swimming pool, excursion, etc.) Each such “product” costs a certain number of bonuses.
• 4) Privileges. For example, a regular customer can be rewarded with: early check-in, free excursions, gifts from the hotel, etc.
• 5) Special promotions. These are events organized by the hotel specifically for regular customers: theme evenings and holidays, buffets and banquets, etc.
• 6) Corporate programs. These programs are aimed at retaining large groups of guests: discounts for the arrival of a group of clients, the possibility of early check-in and late departure of the group, preferential prices for renting a restaurant conference room and additional equipment by a group.

Current problem is to analyze the level of development of innovations of various types in the hospitality industry of Ukraine and its regions and assess its innovative potential to substantiate an effective concept for including the country in the global innovation space and creating a competitive national tourism product.

The introduction of product, information technology, organizational and marketing innovations into the practice of domestic enterprises in the hospitality industry will not only attract additional tourist flows, improve the economic performance of hotel enterprises and increase their competitiveness in both the domestic and foreign tourism markets, but also ensure improved quality serving guests, better meeting their needs, taking into account the specific requests of individual consumer groups.

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