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INDIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Research · October 2015

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M a n u s c r i p t f or PC T E J o u r n a l o f H o t e l M a n a g e m e n t - M a r c h 2 0 1 5

INDIAN HOTEL INDUSTRY: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

TAHIR SUFI
PRINCIPAL
Chandigarh College of H otel Manage ment,
Landran-140307-PUNJAB (INDIA)
E Mail: tahir.sufi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT :

The Indian Hotel Industry is growing at a fast pace. This is due to the intervention by Government
of India to facilitate the business through economic reforms, changes in different taxation policy,
allowing foreign direct investment etc. This paper traces the development of the
Indian Hotel Industry in India right from colonial times so that readers are familiarized with its
different stages of development. This paper also highlights the role the Government of India has
played in the development of this Industry at different stages of history and the forces that shaped
those decisions. The role played by Indian hotel entrepreneurs in establishing the Hotels and taking
those hotels to global markets has been discussed. The challenges posed by entry of
foreign hotels in India and what it means for Indian Hotel Industry shall make readers acquainted
the dynamics of Globalization. The means and methods they use to enter global methods and the
reasons have been extensively discussed. The historical concept of Hotel classification in India
and how it has taken the present form and what media has reported about it has been discussed. The
paper discusses the literature review from the variety of sources to establish the essence of
Hotel Industry in India and its dynamics in twenty first century.

FOUNDATION OF PROFESSIONAL HOTEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA:

The professional hotel Industry in India was established by the British during
colonial times in cities like Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi. The hill resorts of
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Shimla & Mussourie also witness setting up of Hotels for tourists looking for
cooler destinations i n summers. The Hotels that were built in early eighteenth
century include Chales Ville in 1861 and Savoy in 1895 in Mussourie. In Shimla
Clarkes Hotel was established in 1898 and Savoy Hotel was established in
1902(Bond 2003).

Jamshedji Tata the founder of Tata Empire in Mumbai established the hotel on a
grand scale in 1903 and this hotel is the first ever hotel to be built by Indian
entrepreneur in India (Allen 2008). In 1934, Rai Bahadur Man Singh, t he founder
of Oberoi Hotel Chain took over Clarkes Hot el (earlier known as Carlton Hotel)
in Shimla and Delhi and in 1938; he took over Grand Hotel of Calcutta. Other
important hotels that were built during Indian British period were The Rugby,
Matheran (1876), The Grand Calcutta 1930, The Cecil, Mussoorie (1 936).

Post-Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, the First Prime Minister of India

recognized the need to build hotel for the foreign dignitaries and this led to the
building of the first Government invested Hotel Ashok in New Delhi. India
witnessed a tremendou s growth on economic front after independence. The
Government of India established Indian Tourism Development Corporation
(ITDC) in 1966 with the aim of establishing and operating hotels across India
(theashokgroup, 2014). In 1982, India hostel Asian games and to accommodate
the visitors many hotels were built. ITDC alone built seven hotels which include
Kanishka, Ashok Yatri Niwas, Akbar Hotel, Lodhi Hotel, Hotel Ranjit and Qutab
Hotel (Davendra 2011).

The Government of India granted license to Taj P alace, Asian Hotels -Hyatt
Regenc y, Le Meridien, and Surya Sofitel hotels which were built in New Delhi.
Another giant leap which led towards the growth of Hotel Industry in India was
the transformation that took place. India which was t ypically a socialist country
started the economic reforms in 1990’s to become attractive destination for
investment. This led to massive growth of the Hotel Industry.
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GROWTH OF INDIAN HOTEL INDUSTY:

The impressive overall growth resulted in massive investment in the Hotel se ctor
and new Indian and foreign Hotel Chains made their presence on Indian landscape.
The growth of Hotels in India is propelled by the increase in the tourism. The
continued “Incredible India” campaign launched by Government of India has had
a strong impa ct on the tourist arrivals in India (Thadani2005). Crisil research
Annual Review 2013 highli ghted the following interesting facts about the Indian
Hotel Industry. The s ize of the Hot el Industry is USD 3.8 Billion, and is growing
at average rate of 12%. The current suppl y of hotel rooms is about 110,000 hotels
rooms and current demand is about 150,000 hotels rooms.

However, the major reason of the boom in the Hotel Industry is the growth in
information technology and related services. The rise of stock indices and new
business opportunities are also attracting foreign institutional investors, funds,
equity and venture capitalists. The rising BPO industry is also contributing to
growth of the Hospitality Industry Nasscom (2013) .Howe ver, certain factors p ose
a severe threat to the Industry like terrorism, diseases like H1N1, tra vel advisories
etc. As per Taj Hotels annual report 2009, the tourist inflow felt by 3.3% in year
2009-10. The successful marketing of Indian Hotels resulted in the growth of
these hotels on the global scale. Many of these hotel chains are respected in
International Markets. This positive image of Indian hotels helped the hotels
chains in achieving the global recognition and many hotel chains like Taj , Oberoi,
IST A Hotels etc have f orayed in the International markets.

Taj Hotel has presence in twelve countries (Taj Group 2014) which include UK,
USA, Mala ysia, Maldives, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE and Zambia. Similarly,
Oberoi hotels have presence in Indonesia, Mauritius, Egypt an d Saudi Arabia.
These hotels are respected for world class hospitality service in the host countries.
The Indian hotel business leaders like P.R.S. Oberoi received '2010 Corporate
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Hotelier of the World' award in Ne w York in November 2010 by Hotels Ma gazin e

on the basis of voting by the readers of the magazine in more than 150 countries.
The Hotel chain also received the award for being Worlds Hi ghest Rated Luxury
Hotel Brand for being the best in guest satisfaction in service, value and hotels
location and cleanliness (Obeori Hotels, 2014).

Indian hotels are innovating continuously to sustain the competition from

domestic and International Chains. The Indian hotel chains have diversified from
being exclusive super deluxe chains to serving the middle and l ower budget
markets as well. Thus, Indian Hotels have evolved to be competitive, innovative
and extremely guest focused and has been successful in establishing their place
in global markets. The Indian Hotel chains are using latest marketing tools like
on line marketing, social media marketing, Emails, direct marketing, travel
agencies etc to compete in market (Sufi 2012).

Indian hotels have established world class brands by superior service and guest
satisfaction. Over the years so many awards have been won by India n hotels on
international levels. Hotels like ITC hotels, Taj Hotels, Oberoi Hotels, Ananda In
The Himalayas and other hotel chains have not only been awarded consistently by
the International agencies for providing superior services and gues t satisfaction.
ITC Hotels was awarded as World’s Premier Brand by the Galileo -Express Travel
World Awards 2008 & 2006. ITC Welcome Heritage won the Best He ritage Hotel
Brand award in 2006. ITC Sonar, Kolkata has been declared as one of the best
hotels in the world by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) in the
April 2004 i ssue of its ma gazine 'Business & Travel '. ABT A also ra ted Dublin
amongst the top 20 bars and Bukhara the best restaurant in Asia and the finest
Indian restaurant in the world (Itcportal.com, 2014).

Indian Hotel Industry has e volved t remendously over the centuries. The initiative
taken by private entrepreneurs has resulted in the many Hotel chains achieving
highest standards and global recognition worldwide. By expanding in gl obal
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markets, these Hotel chains have proved that Indian Hotel chains have tremendous
potential and have courage to establish themselves in global markets. Howe ver,
in spite of aggressive growth of the Hotel Industry in India both by Indian and
foreign hotels, the competitiveness in terms of being rated among top rated Hotels
on worldwide level doesn’t look that impressive. There are few Hotels which have
figured among world best Hotels but the number of these Hotels is relativel y
smaller. The success sto ries of this small group of hotels discussed above
represent small number of Hotel chains. Hotels in India are being awarded as five
star and five star deluxe brands by Government ratings agencies but these hotels
lack the national and global recognition. This has in fact led to questions being
raised on the approval process in general in India. (Nath 2013, Sharma 2013 and
Chopra 2006).

In order to remain competitive and address such problems, the Indian Hotels opt
for joining the international hotel chai n and get slotted into multitier branding
system. These International Hotel Chains have an edge over independent hotels
because of brand recognition. The International Hotel Chains therefore their
levels of services religiousl y and improve their image by b randing and excellent
service delivery (Ambwani 2012). The customers of these International Hotel
Chains recognize the levels of services where ever they sta y and get satisfied by
the services offered by the hotel.

FOREIGN HOTEL CHAINS IN INDIA:

India is continuousl y improving the environment for promoting Hospitality and

Tourism sector through economic reforms. This has resulted in International Hotel
Chains lining up in India because of ample opportunities available in this sector
for foreign in vestors. The amount of inflow in Indian Hospitality se ctor during
2012-2013 was USD6000 million (Oifc.in, 2014).
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The Government of India has taken several initiatives to make this sector more
lucrative and attractive. This is mainly because it is the seco nd largest employer
in the country and has potential to offer job opportunities to large number of
population of varied levels of skills. These initiatives include 100% foreign direct
investment, concession on income tax paid by employer on salaries and wa ges to
specific cadre of employees (section 10(5) B), single window system for providing
various licenses and grants at Central and state level to reduce the bureaucratic
control, Tax Holida ys. The result of these initiatives has been the Annual Growth
Rate of 14 % for the Hospitality sector - consistentl y. It is very much clear
therefore that Indian Hospitality sector has a tremendous potential of growth.

One of the reasons for growth of Hotel Industry in India has been the globalization
which is defined a s the “process of economic integration of the entire world
through the removal of barriers to free trade and capital mobility as well as
through the diffusion of knowledge and information. It is a historic process of
moving at a speed in different countrie s and in different sectors (Joshi 2005).It is
widely accepted that the key characteristics of globalization have been the
liberation of international trade, the expansion of FDI and the emergence of
massive cross border financial flows. This resulted in in creased competition in
global markets. (Varshney & Bhattacharya 2009).

A number of industries are dominated globally by large corporations known b y

names such as International Corporation, Multinational Corporation, and
transnational corporation. A sign ificant share of the worlds industrial investment,
production, employment and trade are accounted for by 65,000 MNC’s with over
8 lakh affiliates (Cherunilam 2009). In reality the motivation for greater
globalization amongst international hotel companies is frequently determined by
a combination of &push' and &pull' f actors (Barker and Aydin, 1994 ).

The International Hospitality groups are heading towards India using different
market entry strategies as discussed earlier. Beamish (1987) categorized the need s
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of host countries into five groups: (1) items readily capitalized (capital, raw
material supply, and technology or equipment), (2) human resource needs (general
managers and other special function area personnel), (3) market access needs
(access to export markets and distribution channels), (4) government/political
needs and (5) knowledge needs. Meleka (1985) analyzed the benefits that ‘the
host countries expect to obtain: developing the national economy; increasing
national employment; training and manag ement development; strengthening
domestic industries through joint ventures; and establishing national peace and
political stability. The needs of the firm parallel these and include such groupings
as: access to financing, marketing information, regulatory and taxation relief,
stable economic conditions and a good source of human resources.

Keeping in view the dynamics of Indian market which act towards the growth of
Indian Hospitality sector, foreign hotel chains are attracted towards Indian market
for growth and diversification. However, these Hotel chains have their own
marketing philosophy and use bit different marketing techniques in Indian market.
For example Premier Inn Hotels which is a budget Hotel Chain in UK pitches
itself as mid market value f or mone y hotel brand . Verma (2013) reported that
International Hotel Chains pitch themselves at higher equit y in India. T hese hotels
provide restaurants, banquets and in room dining facility in India which these
hotel chains do not normally provi de in thei r host countries. Further the costs of
the real estate in India is 30 -40% higher than in other countries forcing these hotel
brands to go for higher level branding so that they can recover the investment
faster.

The hotels are operating in unique Indian marketing environment which has its
own opportunities to provide to the Industry owing to huge gap in different hotel
segments. This opportunity is tapped by the foreign hotel chains which see India
as a favorable destination for growth and survival (Varma 2009).
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Forei gn hotel chains in India are very competitive and use sharp marketing tactics
to make a way in the Indian Hospitality Market. These hotels are reaping the full
benefit of economic liberalization and reforms in foreign direct investment in this
sector. The foreign hotels are reshaping themselves to make them suitable to
Indian market. For example, For e xample Premier Inn Hotels which is a budget
Hotel Chain in UK pitches itself as mid-market value for money hote l brand has
pitched itself at higher equity in India. Also these hotels provide restaurants,
banquets and in room dining facility in India which these hotel chains do not
normally provide in their host countries (Verma 2009).

The Hilton Hotel s made a re -entry i n Indian market with a bouquet of Hotels from
upscale luxury hotels to mid-scale one. The hotel chain has a joint venture with
real estate giant DLF. Similarly Int ercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) in its annual
report (2012) reported that the company is going to reposition itself in India by
moving itself from being franchisee to management contracts. The company shall
be putting franchise contracts to end and signing new hotels under management
contracts in Tier 1 cities of India. The othe r Hotel chains like Marriott, Hyatt
Hotels Corp, InterContinental Hotels Group(IHG), Hilton Worldwide, Accor
SA and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, which are already present in
India, have joined hands with se veral developers and investors to open scores of
properties across the country. The estimate of 65,000 to 80,000 rooms by 850
properties of foreign hotel chains are expected to be added to Indi an room
inventory as per market research agenc y ICRA (Ghosh, 2012). Apart from luxury
and premium segments of the market, the foreign hotel chains are also targeting
upscale, mid scale, budget and upper budget segments. These hotel chains are
funding the projects as well -otherwise these chains used to enter through
management mode to foreign markets. These hotel chains are pushing for decrease
in room rates of premium luxury Indian hotel brands and these Indian Hotel chains
are under pressure because of th e competition from these foreign hotel chains . It
is clear from the discussion that not onl y are foreign hotel chains increasing in
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the number, but they are also posing a major threat to Indian Hotel chains within
Indian market.

HOTEL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM:

The process of classification of Hotels in India started in 1956 when the Government set up a Hotel
standards and Rate Structure Committee under the Chairmanship of M.S.Oberoi which set up the
following objectives(Seth 2006) .

 To lay down criteria for the purpose of classification of Hotels in India, keeping in view
International standards that apply to similar establishments elsewhere;

 To suggest ways and means for promoting tourist traffic to and in India.

 To suggest arrangements or improvements on existing arrangements desirable for

promoting international and external tourism.

With this, the process of classification system of Indian Hotels started and the recommendations
of the same guidelines were used till 1955 when the revision of the classification norms initiated.
The committee was set up to decide the legislation that are necessary for Indian hotel Industry
keeping in view price level prevailing in India and also to suggest suitable rate structure for the
Hotel Industry. The committee decided to accept classification system based on star rating system.
The recommendations of this committee were accepted by the Government of India. The
committee travelled all over India and classified 186 hotels. India adopted the point based system
of Hotel classification based on level of facilities available in the Hotel( Bhatia 2008).

In 2003 Ministry of Tourism renewed the guidelines again for hotel classification so that Indian
hotels rank high on global scale as well .However Chopra ( 2006) raised the apprehensions that
these norms are haphazard since the Indian Hotels which claim to be five stars cannot meet the
international standards as these Hotels do not offer the level of services that the International
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Hotels offer. There are few five star hotels only which rank on global scale as well, many of our
five star rated hotels do not appear anywhere on global scale.

The Ministry of tourism recently revised the norms again in 2013 on the basis of suggestions
provided by the Hotel Industry so as to make the Hotel Industry more customers focused with
increased level of service. The new guidelines also aim at providing the guest all the information
about the services offered by the hotel on their website. However, these guidelines were not well
accepted by the Industry by and large. (Sharma 2013) in a report published in Economic Times
summarized views of the Hospitality Leaders who had the concern that the new guidelines are full
of minute details like hooks for curtains, water sprays in bathrooms blackout curtains which are
used in evaluating the Hotels and these details are of little value in evaluating hotels. It was further
pointed out that the new guidelines of the Ministry of Tourism were too low what the hotel brand
standards have to offer.

The Ministry of tourism guidelines classifies hotels on the basis of star categorization (one, two,
three, four and five star) hotels and heritage category hotels (heritage grand, heritage classic and
heritage basic) hotels. The inspection of the Hotels is carried out by Hotel & Restaurant Approval
&Classification Committee which inspects and assesses the hotel on the basis of the facilities and
services offered. The committee checks the projects on the basis of the following parameters for
allocating the star category to the hotel (MOT 2013). These parameters include, location details,
status of ownership, site details, project details (size, area, facilities, energy conservation, etc),
blue Prints of all areas, proposed capital structure, skills development initiatives (running training
courses).

The part two of the norms deal with the level of services that the hotel should offer. These facilities
are further classified as guest room facilities, bath room facilities, public area facilities, facilities
for disabled, food and beverage facilities, facilities in kitchen, guest services, safety and security,
communication facility, eco friendly practices etc.

However, the intention of the Ministry to upgrade the level of service and quality of the Hotels
through the new guidelines is a question mark. Many of the hotels, which have been allocated as
five star statuses seem to be lacking basic levels of service as per the opinion of tour operators.
The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India in its report on Hotel Classification
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(Nath 2013) summarized the views of the Hotel General Managers, Tour Operators and other stake
holders. The report clearly expressed dissatisfaction with the new classification guidelines on
account of the issues like classification being a deterrent for many hotels as tax structure of
classified is higher in some states, minimum wages higher for three, four and five star hotels,
increase in license fees. Also the marketing support as claimed by Government for classified hotels
is of no real value because the guests do not refer to these guidelines rather they refer to the
websites like trip advisor etc. Micromanagement by Ministry in hotel operations like number of
hooks hotel should have behind bathroom door etc leave hotel executives frustrated. On the other
side, the positive side of the guidelines include, conformity to bench mark, enforcement of laws,
enforcement of energy conservation, ensuring safety and security and providing a platform for
hotel quality to guest. Many hotels which have been categorized as five star and five star deluxe
status lack the service standards and do not deserve such a high level of accreditation.

CONCLUSION:

It is clear from the discussion that the Indian Hotel Industry is growing at fast
rate. The competition between the Indian and foreign hotel chains has led to the
falling room rates. While as some hotel chains have earned name and fame in
Global markets ma ny others are being accused of lacking the service quality which
does not match their Hotel classification star category. The best role the
Government can play in such a situation is play a role of facilitator of growth
onl y by encouraging foreign investme nt, restructuring the tax schemes to make
Hoteliers confident of investing, reduce the luxury and service taxes so that prices
of services offered by the hotels are lowered . The Government should handover
the Hotel classification process to private player s like FHRAI so that more
transparency is ensured and only deserving hotels get the higher star ratings.

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