Sexual harassment in the Dutch hospitality industry

The hospitality industry is seen as one of the industries with the highest number of sexual harassment incidents happening at the work floor. Research discussed reasons for its occurrence, stating reasons as power, vulnerability, but also misinterpretation of one party to another based on body language. One may claim that this industry¿s image and having the bedroom as work floor are playing important roles as trigger for sexual harassment to happen casually. To add, the division between sexual harassment initiated by guests and between colleagues is made here. Furthermore, despite that women are often seen as victims of sexual harassment, presence of male victims is noticeable. Nevertheless, most victims feel insecure or do not know where to go in terms of speaking up. Moreover, the Netherlands is scoring high in sexual harassment rates and researched argued that graduates of hotel schools in the Netherlands are leaving the industry with high numbers as soon as they experience working.