Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The hospitality industry represents a vast segment of the American economy, employing about fourteen million individuals. According to 2017 data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13.1% of the total leisure and hospitality workforce is Black or African American. This paper examines the representation and status of Blacks over time as line-level employees, managers, and owners in the luxury hotel market. Information is gleaned from an analysis of surveys like the NAACP Opportunity and Diversity Report Card: The Hotel & Resort Industry, which was first published in 1996, the impact of organizations like the National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators, and Developers (NABHOOD), which formed in the late 1990s, and the opening of the first Black-owned luxury hotel in the U.S.—the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort in Miami, Florida in 2002. This project determines if Black involvement in the luxury hotel sector is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stagnant, whether Blacks are engaged across the employment hierarchy, and what the overall impact of this participation is on the larger hospitality industry.