Editor's Note: The Heart of Hospitality

Summer travel is in full swing. We’ve probably all seen the headlines — and the headaches — people have encountered during this year’s summer travel season.

According to the Travel Recovery Insights Dashboard from the U.S. Travel Association, travel spending hit a new pandemic high of $101 billion in May, just slightly above April’s $100 billion. AAA predicted that 48 million Americans would travel over the Fourth of July holiday weekend — an increase of 4% from 2021, just 2% below 2019 levels. As of June, 89% of companies now allow non-essential domestic business travel, and in-person meetings are the top business travel expense companies are planning for the remainder of the year. Spending for conferences as a share of overall business travel spend is expected to be up four percentage points from 2019.

With pent-up demand leading many to expect record numbers as we close out the summer months, this opens up a great deal of opportunity for printers capable of producing signage of all types. It also offers up huge opportunities to print service providers catering to the hospitality space — especially hotels and restaurants.

From the menus, to the wall graphics, to the signage, to the windows, and everything in between, graphics help restaurants set the mood and create the ambiance they need for the experience they are trying to evoke. But restaurant owners are chefs and business people — not graphics experts. A print service provider with ideas and expertise to help bring a new concept or vision to life can mean the difference between a new restaurant standing out, or fading into the background. Starting on page 18, you can read more about what it takes to stand out in the restaurant space.

With so many types of printable window films now available, print service providers, sign shops, and visual communications companies can help restaurants with much more than short-term promotional graphics. With more permanent decorative window materials, restaurant designers can use all glass surfaces within a restaurant to improve branding, ambience, and overall customer experience. Find out where the new opportunities are with restaurant window graphics, starting on page 26.

In the printed sense, wide-format printing produced for the hospitality segment is not that much different from the work done for the retail market. The technologies used are often the same, and the end products often require similar materials and finishing steps. Even the images — which are comprised of a mix of messaging and decoration — may look similar. But, realizing “environmental design,” which could be defined as printed elements that provide decoration or “mood” in hospitality, corporate, or institutional spaces on a large scale can be quite complicated. How do you ensure this is something you and your team can handle? Check out the article, “The Hospitality Segment: A Matter of Scale,” starting on page 21 to find out more.

No matter where you might be headed during the rest of the summer season, take the time to admire and draw inspiration from the environmental graphics, customized upholstery and wall coverings, and window graphics you’ll find in your favorite — or new favorite — restaurant or resort. You’re sure to find something to spark your creativity.