Tourism and Hospitality Sector Witnessing Exponential Growth: Vineet Verma

‘INDIA'S potential in Tourism and Hospitality sectors is still under-exploited’ says Vineet Verma, CEO and Executive Director at Brigade Hospitality Services Ltd.

Verma takes care of operations at large and foresees work and progress across brand's offerings and services. At the same time, a few of these properties have experienced and creative Chefs, F&B managers who cater to the cosmopolitan crowd of Bangalore as well as people who visit them across the country.

According to Verma, the numbers in Tourism and Hospitality sector have shown some improvement, and due to the concerted efforts of all stakeholders and with Government’s support the sector has seen exponential growth .“Our country’s economy is showing robust growth and the Hospitality sector is also bound to get benefited. It is important that our sector continues to also evolve in terms of Service standards and infrastructure, in keeping with guest expectations,” he said.

Verma believes that over the last decade, the hospitality industry has seen a dramatic change especially with the coming of technology. “While, the basic tenets of hospitality in terms of guest service and hospitality continue to form the backbone of the sector, one has seen a paradigm shift when it comes to methods of interacting with the guests. The digital world has taken the hospitality sector by a storm,” he said

Speaking about the challenges, Verma feels that the lack of skilled man-power leading to poaching of talent within the industry is a matter of concern. “New talent is hard to come by, fresher from Hotel management schools are also finding it more lucrative to join other sectors that offer a better ‘work-life balance’ besides a 5-day week and other facilities,” he said.

Verma continued to add that there is a complex requirement of Licenses and approvals before one can open a hotel in India. Which often results in hotel openings getting delayed and resulting in cost overruns and loss of business. “While some States have a Single Window clearance in place for project approvals and other States are contemplating to do so, it is important that this policy is effectively implemented for it to be truly helpful in expediting the approval process and in reducing the number of approvals required overall,” he said.