The Challenge of Event Management as A New Trend in the Hospitality Industry (A Case Study of Event Planners and Hospitality Outlets in Ondo State, Nigeria)

Abstract

Event management can also be referred to as the process of planning, organizing, and implementing events, such as conventions, conferences, festivals, parties, weddings etc. It inculcates careful coordination of logistics, scheduling, management and resources to ensure a successful and memorable event.The study is aimed at ascertaining the challenges faced by event management in some selected hospitality outlets in Ondo State, to investigate how these challenges affect the growth of the hospitality sector of the economy and toidentify all possible methods for overcoming or reducing the challenges encountered in event management.The study adopted a quantitative data collection method. ANOVA and chi-square were used to test the two hypotheses for the study. It was revealed by the findings in the objectives that government policies, insecurity, poor budget and other logistics issues are the bane that are confronting event management. The results of the hypothesis tested indicated a P value of 19.3331 which suggested that there is no significant difference between the challenge of event management and the development of the hospitality industry. The study concluded that the hospitality industry can significantly develop at an interesting pace if events are properly planned, organized and managed without challenges as identified in this study. It is therefore recommended that events planning, implementation and management require the services of an expert in the field of tourism and hospitality industry who is professionally trained as an event planner and a team works for strategic decision making. The government should endeavour to provide a good security network to fight against any form of insecurity and enable an environment for event management to thrive.