HRANI Announces Its 1st North India Convention: 'Hospitality Industry - Vision 2020'

Company Brief

New Delhi, August 11, 2011

The Hotel & Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI) today announced the 1st Convention of the association at Leela Palace. The 3-day convention will be held in the holy city of the Golden Temple, Amritsar from September 23-25, 2011. The theme for the convention this year is “Hospitality Industry-Vision 2020” and it is aimed at sighting and discussing various issues that the hospitality industry currently faces and would face in the near future.

The Convention will have various brain storming business sessions, industry seminars and talk shows conducted by professionals from within the industry. Topics varying from tips on making your property Eco-Hotels, tapping franchising opportunities with global chains, training staff and new management mantras will dominate the sessions. The Convention will liven up each evening with musical performances, theme nights and fashion shows.

Mr. Saeed Shervani, President-HRANI highlighted, “By 2020, the Government of India expects travel and tourism to contribute Rs 8,500 billion to GDP, almost four times the value in 2005 which shows how the industry is expected to boom. By then India tourism industry will grow to be greater than that of the UK, France or Japan. The growing middle class along with a younger population will be the main drivers of this demand. However, the hospitality industry needs to address some important issues before it is ready to meet this demand.”

Major impediments to the growth of the small family held hotels and small chains are sensitivity to business cycles, adverse political and social events (including terrorist attacks), making that paradigm shift from traditional to modern practices and turning your property into a world class space. These issues would be discussed and analyze during the convention.

“As the market gets buoyant and the domestic tourism industry gets active, it becomes crucial that family run hotels and restaurants evolve according to the scenario for granting an ideal experience to their consumers”, Mr. Shervani further adds.

The major topics covered in the convention would be on

- HR Issues: An average hotelier spends 33% of revenues on labour costs, but employee turnover in the industry is as high as 31%. High employee turnover continues to plague the industry and operators need robust strategic plans to retain their critical employees and manage turnover.

- Security Issues: The Taj and the Oberoi terror attacks and subsequent bomb blasts almost all over the world have underlined the need for hotels to have top-of-the-line security without being too invasive and allowing guests to retain their privacy. This poses a major challenge for the hotel industry.

- Responsible Tourism: Sustainability is becoming a defining issue for the industry in 2015 and beyond. Rising populations and increasingly scarce resources will provide a challenging business environment in which sustainability will need to be embedded within all facets of the hospitality industry.

- Marketing Practices: Is online the way forward? What will be the role of the mainstream offline travel agents?

For further information, please contact:

Goodword Media Services

Anurag Bhatt

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Email: anurag@goodwordmedia.com