European perspective on the future of food & beverage operations

Food & beverage operations

 

After the finalization of the NTG desk research and survey, semi-structured interviews were conducted in all partner countries to acquire additional in-depth understanding and insights into the future of digital, green and social skills from the perspective of people working in the tourism industry. Altogether, 264 interviews were conducted in the NTG key partner countries with senior managers, human resource managers, company owners, entrepreneurs, heads of department and other relevant respondents in all five tourism sectors under investigation. This blog focuses on the most important outcomes of the food & beverage operations.

 

 

Digital skills

Digital skills requirements in this sector depend on which side of the business is considered. Although everybody will need basic digital literacy (working with Internet, e-mail, apps, tablets, Office, Skype et cetera), people working in the actual production of food will need to be able to work with robots which will take over various kitchen processes and mobile apps which will be needed for operating kitchen technology, for stock control, ordering ingredients and optimization of production processes in general.

Green skills

Environmental skills are currently not a requirement when hiring staff in this sector. The impression is that sustainable practices are to a large extent customer driven: the younger generation – both as customers and as employees – increasingly has a sustainable mindset; they also have an interest in healthy eating and want to know where their food is originating from. This means that companies will have to meet their demands in this field to remain relevant. 

 

Social skills

Despite the ongoing automation and digitization processes, also in this sector, excellent service skills and putting the customer first are and will remain core skills. With guests looking for food and beverage locations that have similar social values to their own, creating memorable (culinary) and personalized experiences (partly based on digital data) will become more significant. 

 

 

The future of digital, social and green skills

The Next Tourism Generation Alliance has conducted desk and field research on the future of digital, green and social skills in tourism. The outcomes have been collected in documented in research reports and visualized content. This output can be found on the research page. Furthermore, the most striking results from the interview reports can be found in attractive SlideShare presentations, please have a look to check out the quotes from the representatives from the tourism industry – Italy, UK, Hungary, Bulgary, Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands and Germany.

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