CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
       Hospitality means providing service to others, as well as demonstrating consistent excellence and quality. It should also mean profitably providing value at any price level, while demonstrating your own unique points of distinction. Most of all, hospitality should be a “place”, where people can still be exceptional individuals and they can extend their own personality and style (Hogan, 2008). The hospitality industry is part of a huge group of companies known as travel and tourism industry, which provides the necessary or desirable goods and services to travelers. The hospitality and tourism industries are the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world (Walker, 2010).
Frequent terrorisms incidents, natural disasters like Asian tsunami, hurricane and forest fire warn hospitality suppliers and buyers to be prepared for just any imaginable crisis. Security is not limited to only a single aspect it is been classified into various types. Even Taylor (2002) stated that safety involves preventing employees and customers within the hotel property from potential death and injury, such as from accidental slips, falls, cuts, burns and so forth, as well as preventing related property damage. To improve safety, many hotel companies have installed electronic locks, fire sprinklers, smoke detectors, and closed circuit televisions (Okumus, 2005).
The security of assets, the safety of the personnel who keep them running, and the well-being of the guests becomes increasingly important as insecurity threat spreads around the globe.
In today’s world of proliferating terrorism and heightened security concerns, security department in the hotel industry are faced with a grim, new reality.
Hotels are increasingly vulnerable to attack by radical groups who use terror as their strategy of choice. Attacks against hotels in the Northern part of Nigeria should provide hoteliers as serious warning that no region is immune and no hotel is completely safe (Natasa 2010). The only way to prevent or reduce insecurity threats is for the security department in the hotels to be alert all the time and play their roles with full responsibilities.
The roles and responsibilities of the security department is to make sure that guest and employees are safe and properties are prevented from damage pro-active safety and security planning is an essential role in their operations. From guests’ and personnels’ safety to facility damage and serious liability issues, hotels face new and difficult challenges that must be addressed today to minimize vulnerability in the face of the unthinkable.
       The number of terrorist attacks against hotels throughout the world over the last few years has underscored the need to assess each location and provide security solutions for both facilities and the people who populate them. These security solutions are tools meant for security department that with help facilitate the activities of the security personnel. And the tools are CCTV, walkie-talkie, metal detector device chemical/bomb detectors etc. Every security department in hotel should base on current intelligence and provides a thorough evaluation of the locality, and reliable, practical solutions to close vulnerability gaps, protect assets personnel and guest of hospitality establishment.