Emerging Opportunities in the Indian Hospitality Sector

The global hospitality sector has seen a major shift in recent times with major hotel players starting new chains to cater to an emerging class of traveller, the young and moneyed. As a result of this players have introduced new chains targeting the millennial set as well as providing them with amenities catering to their whims and fancies. What has also changed in recent years is high net worth individuals from emerging nations such as Brazil, Russia, India & China travelling to the west to the extent of replacing the Japanese as the most widely travelled set. As for the avid business traveller, most of the top global chains have also introduced low end budget hotels catering to this dominating segment of the market in every corner of the planet.

So what do these new customers want? They want to be checked in as soon as possible and don’t want to wait to be checked in. Being a highly educated set, they will voice their opinions on social media if there is a small yet avoidable situation. Also as a result of increased competition from both international players as well as local chains in countries, customers are looking to be wowed from the hotel they are staying in, even till date free WiFi is the one of the biggest ‘crowd pullers’ apart from room upgrades and free meals. As mentioned above the number of international travellers has seen a growth especially from emerging markets therefore hotels need to get themselves acclimatized to various cultures as well as offering a variety of services to cater to these clients. For example, a lot of Indian travellers travelling to the west are offered free and sometimes Jain food as a part of their travel packages. It is these small things that make a difference and get the customers coming back for more.

The internet and social media has also changed how the hospitality sector works. Potential customers log into websites such as Tripadvisor and Yelp, look at reviews of different properties before making a sound decision on booking a room on a Makemytrip.com or a Yatra.com. Additionally, the arrival of rent-a-room services such as AirBnb have also changed the market by offering short term lets globally with services at par with full-service hotels. 

So what are the opportunities for the Indian hotel industry then? First of all, the emergence of new cities such as the NCR region around Delhi as well as the cities of Pune, Hyderabad, etc are proving to be boon for the sector. Moreover, allowance of up to 100% of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the sector has given both international as well as domestic chains a reason to smile. Additionally, real estate developers are also seeing the hospitality sector as a means of leverage to sell their unsold commercial inventory by packaging a luxury hotel with a mall. However what needs to be looked in terms of the operational side is the quality of manpower that is coming out of the various hotel management institutes in the country. The hospitality institutes need to provide more career oriented and practical courses that provide more hands-on experience to hotel management graduates. Lastly, they need to take a more internationally recognized view of their training & development. 

 Career in Hospitality, Hospitality Jobs, Hospitality Management,

An Introduction in the Hospitality Industry

Since the evolution of earth, humans have traveled from one place to another as warriors, traders or people in search of knowledge, however, they all had one thing in common “a place to rest and dine”. In the early day, the Warriors and conquerors would put tents for accommodation, while traders and persons traveling for knowledge would trade their merchandise for lodging. 
 

Inn keeping is considered as the first commercial enterprise and providing of the service in exchange of money, hence began an era of hotels and their sub categories.

The link below would give a good insight about the current hospitality industry.

The rates were, of course, reasonable. The company was rough. Travelers shared the same quarters with their horses and animals. 
 

King James Version of Bible mentions that a Bethlehem innkeeper turned Mary and Joseph away, because there was "no room at the inn". According to Biblical scholars the innkeeper may have meant that the room was unsuitable for a woman about to give birth to a child. At that time, and probably for several centuries after that, men and women shared the same accommodation accompanied by their horses and livestock. The stable where Mary and Joseph spent the night was probably almost as comfortable as an inn and at the same time certainly more private than the inn itself. 

 

In the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire, developed an extensive network of brick paved roads throughout Europe and Asia Minor, and a chain of roadside lodges was constructed along the major thoroughfare from Spain to Turkey. 
 

Till the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s, no significant improvement was made in the inns, and taverns and they were not very suitable for aristocrats. To accommodate wealthy travelers, luxurious structures were constructed with private rooms, individual sanitation and comforts of a European castle. These elegant new establishments adopted the French word for mansion-'Hotel'. Their rates were beyond the reach of an ordinary person. 
 

In America early inns were-modeled after European taverns with sleeping quarters shared by two or more guests. 
 

Herman Melville in his novel Moby Dick has mentioned about a seaman who checked into a room of a nineteenth century inn and next morning woke up to find out that he was sharing the bed with a cannibal. Sharing beds was a very common practice in early American and European inns. Throughout the 1800s American innkeepers improved their services and continued to build larger and more amply equipped properties and most of these properties were located near seaport towns.

Hospitality Jobs Umbrella

Why students are looking for Hospitality jobs?

Best answer for this can be classified into three broad criteria:

       1.The experience

       2.Interest of the student

       3.Ambition of the student

Apart from motivation and creativity, all which is required is the out of the box thinking and the passion with in. Motivation, Innovation and thinking rarely co-exist, but if they are then sky is the limit.

Student chooses hotel industry for their Passion, Desire in the field and they believe this has a ‘calling’ on what they are supposed to do. This is very evident in our environment ranging from celebrity chefs, food critics, Hotel Managers and Entrepreneurs.

Above figure shows various career opportunities in today’s globalized world for a hospitality graduate.

Careers in Hospitality Industry give more job opportunities for one to choose, depending upon your taste, the experience, salary among other Determinants – the choice is yours!!