‘Manpower requirement in hospitality sector to rise dramatically’

Despite the ongoing global economic crisis, particularly in the Eurozone for the Indian tourism industry, 2012-13 was a blockbuster year with the foreign tourists’ arrival recording a 5.4 per cent jump to 6.65 million as at the end of December 2012, according V.K. Prasad, General Manager, Vivanta by Taj - Surya, Coimbatore.

He said with nearly 400 hotel projects now under various stages of execution, expected to be commissioned over the next two years, manpower requirement of the industry is set to witness an exponential growth.

He was speaking at the Business Line Club meeting sponsored by the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd, Thoothukudi and held at the G.R.Damodaran Academy of Management (GRDAM), Neelambur, Coimbatore.

Quoting from a report by global consultancy company Deloitte, Prasad said more than 400 projects offering over 70,000 branded rooms were likely to be commissioned in the next two years across the country. With the expected boom in the room inventory over the next five years, the demand for trained manpower in the hospitality sector ‘will rise dramatically'. Already the sector was facing a near 30 per cent shortage in skilled workforce.

He said the global economic slowdown has had an impact on the hospitality sector and inflation and high interest rates have been a dampener. But despite this, 2012 saw a surge in foreign tourist flow into India with around 6.65 million tourists flocking to the country as at the end of Dec 2012, marking a growth of 5.4 per cent compared with the previous year’s 6.31 million foreign tourists.

Domestic tourism had registered a compounded annual growth of 14.34 per cent during 1991-2011. The hotels and restaurants’ sector accounted for a 1.5 per cent share in the country's GDP that was commendable.

Turning to the employment opportunities available in the sector, Prasad said the impending explosion in the hospitality industry would throw up abundance of opportunities for aspiring students. There were certain key areas such as front office, food and beverages production/service and house keeping that offered significant employment opportunities.

The intense competition due to the number of hotels growing in the country also offered job opportunities in fields like sales and marketing, quality management and revenue management. With the expansion of cities, hotels that once were serving leisure travellers are now catering to core corporate groups as such hotels are now positioned in the heart of new business districts. Hotels, both Indian and international, are also developing sub-brands to cater to different client segments.

M. Kannan, Branch Head, TMB, Kumarapalayampudur, Coimbatore and C.K. Kotravel Bharathi, Principal/Director of GRDAM spoke.