SWOT Analysis of the Hospitality Industry in India
Hospitality is about serving the guests to provide them with "feel-good-effect". "Athithi devo bhavha" (Guest is God) has been one of central tenets of Indian culture since times immemorial. In India, the guest is treated with utmost warmth and respect and is provided the best services.
Today hospitality sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. It is expected to grow at the rate of 8% between 2007 and 2016. Many international hotels including Sheraton, Hyatt, Radisson, Meridien, Four Seasons Regent, and Marriott International are already established in the Indian markets and are still expanding.
SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS
1. Natural and cultural diversity : India has a rich cultural heritage. The "unity in diversity" tag attracts most tourists. The coastlines, sunny beaches, backwaters of Kerala, snow capped Himalayas and the quiescent lakes are incredible.
2. Demand-supply gap : Indian hotel industry is facing a mismatch between the demand and supply of rooms leading to higher room rates and occupancy levels. With the privilege of hosting Commonwealth Games 2010 there is more demand of rooms in five star hotels. This has led to the rapid expansion of the sector.
3. Government support: The government has realized the importance of tourism and has proposed a budget of Rs. 540 crore for the development of the industry. The priority is being given to the development of the infrastructure and of new tourist destinations and circuits. The Department of Tourism (DOT) has already started the "Incredible India" campaign for the promotion of tourism in India.
4. Increase in the market share: India's share in international tourism and hospitality market is expected to increase over the long-term. New budget and star hotels are being established. Moreover, foreign hospitality players are heading towards Indian markets.
Hospitality is all about offering warmth to someone who looks for help at a strange or unfriendly place. It refers to the process of receiving and entertaining a guest with goodwill. Hospitality in the commercial context refers to the activity of hotels, restaurants, catering, inn, resorts or clubs who make a vocation of treating tourists.
Helped With unique efforts by government and all other stakeholders, including hotel owners, resort managers, tour and travel operators and employees who work in the sector, Indian hospitality industry has gained a level of acceptance world over. It has yet to go miles for recognition as a world leader of hospitality.
The role that hospitality plays within greek custom is social standing. In other words how the hosts treats their guest is a reflection of the outcome and how the gods look upon them. To explain, if a hosts does wrong by a guest, then bad things will happen. Verses if hosts does great things for the guest, good things will happen. Demonstrating good hospitality is important to the gods because the people in Greece don’t know when the gods will be in disguise therefore the idea of hospitality is to treat everyone as if they are a
Far removed from our individualistic society today is the ancient Greece portrayed in The Odyssey, by Homer, where hospitality and good will are the way of things. As decreed by Zeus himself, those who wish the favor of the Gods must welcome foreign and domestic with hospitality. A man was supposed to offer the best of his food, his home, and his knowledge before ever asking for his guest’s name or why he was there. There is a sense that those of high status are the main givers of hospitality, but they are not the only ones commanded to offer hospitality. Homer emphasizes hospitality from everyone during Telemachus’ and Odysseus’ journeys, using a man’s xenos, host/guest relationships, with his guest to infer his integrity and character. If a man isn’t pure, then he doesn’t show hospitality and Homer makes sure that man is put in his proper place through the vengeance of those he has wronged.
The theme of hospitality is mentioned several time in the books. It is an important tradition in ancient greeks that every homeowner shows hospitality and every guest expects it. Same in “Odyssey” when Odysseus is in Polyphemus cave and he knows he's about to face death he expect Polyphemus to show some hospitality to him cause he is a guest at his home. Odysseus says, "So you ask the name I'm known by Cyclops? I will tell you. But you must give me the guest gift you've promised" (222-223). That shows us that Odysseus doesn't care about what will follow but he demands some hospitality to be shown to him. It is more like a tradition as far i i could understand. We have another case of hospitality when Athena goes to Telemachus for the first time. After she enters the house firstly she gets greeted and then she is sat down where she would be served by one of the
Sri Lanka's tourism sector is developing rapidly, strengthened by an increasing range of national and international air travel networks and rising awareness of its countless attractions, as well as better safety awareness since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war. With international tourist arrivals increasing rapidly, Sri Lanka's hotel and accommodation sector is inviting substantial foreign investors. The luxury hotel sector in specific is developing rapidly.
‘AthithiDevoBhava’ which means Guest is like god is part a Sanskrit verse taken from the Taittriya Upanishad. The scripture is highly is revered by Indians and is imbibed from a very young age. This phrase has now become the tagline of the Tourism Ministry of India. The Indian Government has been proactive in promoting tourism in India through campaigns like ‘AthithiDevoBhava’ and ‘Incredible India’. India has 28 world heritage sites and 25 bio-geographic zones, which naturally attracts tourism, while rural and wildlife tourism are also picking up pace. A key component of the hospitality industry is Hotels. The success of the hotel industry depends a lot on location, luxuries, extra services provided and consumer perception. The happiness of the customer plays the biggest role in the well-being of the industry. Apart from these, the following ingredients are also influential.
The Hotel industry has become very important in the past years due to immense traveling and growth of international business. Hotel industry not only plays an important role in the life of people but as well as the economy of the country. Development and advancement in the Hotel industry have rapidly been taking place and especially since the rapid change in technology, it is very important for hotels to be promptly keeping up to date. When the hotel industry is spoken of, there are many famous hotels but one hotel company that has been outstanding in growth and other aspects of business, like in Leadership, Teamwork (Employee turnover), Motivation (Customer retention and satisfaction, Goals and objectives, (changing the way hotel business has worked), and Change within the company; structurally inside and physically outside, adding elements, like entertainment, gaming, and outdoor activities, is the Hilton Hotel Company.
The travel and tourism industry has blessed the country. India ranks third in the world for its tourism. Social rules are defined by culture in terms of what is appropriate, what is not, what affects people's approach to time and activities. It is important for companies to adopt multicultural environment of its workforce for the purpose of good relationship between customers and employees, it is thus necessary to train our employees in order to recognize the request by the culturally different customers.
Accordingly, there is no country or village that does not seek to attract the interest of tourism in one way or another by expecting its significant multiplier benefits (economic, cultural and social). For proof, one of the international (WTM, ITB,etc.) or national tourism reports is needed to find an ever-increasing number of exhibitor participants. At the same time, it will find out what is happening in the tourism sector and how the market trends are fluctuating, not only by tourism operators and travel package organizers, but also by the tourists themselves as well as by the indirectly involved with
Moreover, the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is considered the first international hotel brand in the world, as it began operations in the year 1946 (About InterContinental Hotels Group Brands, 2015). Over time the hotel group has evolved to encompass quality hotel rooms not only in North America, but in Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and Asia-Pacific (IHG – InterContinental Hotels Group, 2015). In addition, they have acquired extended stay facilities and the Hualuxe Hotels & Resorts, which specifically “celebrates the essence of Chinese hospitality” (About InterContinental Hotels Group Brands, 2015). In my opinion, this shows that their target market has changed by expanding their scope of travel, which means they are traveling to farther and farther locations and require the familiar surroundings with equivalent product quality at the final destination. The InterContinental Hotels Group is in the fourth and final stage of the product life cycle, which is the decline stage (Editorial Board, 2014, p. 212). Indeed, the brands lengthy history indicates it has loyal customers, but its addition of innovations indicates the targeting of new customers for the organization, which are clear signs of a business in the decline stage of the product life cycle (Editorial Board, 2014, p.
Whitla, P., Walters, P., Davies, H. 2007, Global strategies in the international hotel industry, Hospitality Management, vol. 26, pp. 777–792.
The overall industry saw a strong boom rate from 2010-2014. The global hotels & motels industry had total revenues of $677.1bn in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6% between 2010 and 2014. In comparison, the Asia-Pacific and US industries grew with CAGRs of 6.6% and 5% respectively, over the same period, to reach respective values of $163.7bn and $166.2bn in 2014(Global Hotels & Motels 7). The reason for this growth is due to the Asia-Pacific Region and Americas. The US alone with its world’s largest hotels/market has conquered net value growth, while China has literally doubled the revenue in the same time span. The leisure segment
Based on McIntosh and friends (1995) tourism is a phenomenon and relationship that exists due to interaction between tourist, businessman, government and community as the host in process attract tourist and foreign tourism. Indirectly, this definition clarified tourism is visit or travel to another place within yesterday, aimed amused, rested, traded and so on. In fact, there are four key that related in
...to the government coffers. Among the disadvantages of mounting tourism are leakages forms the economies of developing countries through imports, high inflation, land speculation, low investments go back due to seasonal nature of tourism, etc. An important inconvenience of small countries with rich tourist assets is that they tend to depend too much on tourism which is vulnerable to local and regional conflicts as well a national catastrophe. India has tremendous potential for domestic tourism. The economic contribution of domestic tourism is estimated at Rs. 33,000 crores compared to Rs. 3300 crores of the International tourism. So, from an economic point of view domestic tourism is more important than international tourism, mainly for a country like India and for that the role of public and private sector in the expansion of economy be supposed to be complementary.
India has great potential for tourism. Due to ongoing globalization India has emerged as a global tourist hotspot. Hence the hotel industry has grown tremendously. Apart from Government thrust, the involvement of the private players has opened new horizons for the industry. Different kinds of tourism have developed over the years. These new and growing areas include Adventure Tourism, Health Tourism, Railway Tourism and Heritage Tourism.
Pizam (2009) defines tourism industry as the make up of businesses that provide goods and services to tourists. The British Columbian Tourism HR Society defines tourism as the activities of people travelling and staying in places outside their usual environment for the purpose of leisure, business or other purposes for more than 24 hours but no less than one consecutive year. Additionally, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) defines a tourist as a person who travels and stays at a place outside their usual environment for leisure, business or other purposes for no longer than one consecutive year. According to Clayton & Burrows (2009) the true definition of hospitality is the reception and entertainment of guests with liberality and goodwill. (Barrows & Powers, 2009) (go2 Tourism HR Society, 2014) Pizman (2009) defines the hospitality industry as the make up of businesses that provide accommodation, food and beverage and meetings to touri...