Job-hopping? Indian hotel industry to hire 21,200 a year

Looking for a new career? Try the Indian hospitality industry. It’s tipped to hire about 2.84 lakh additional employees as it expands by another 188,500 rooms by 2021, according to a white paper titled “Hotel room supply, capital investment and manpower requirement by 2021"by hospitality industry consultancy HVS.

That’s essentially about 21, 200 recruits a year.

[caption id=“attachment_255876” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“About 10,000 students graduate with either a degree or diploma in hospitality every year.”]  [/caption]

India currently has about 140 approved hotel management institutes. Factoring in the maximum permissible intake for each institute, about 10,000 students graduate with either a degree or diploma in hospitality every year, the white paper says.“Not only does this number fall significantly short of the annual demand for hotel manpower, but also not all 10,000 new graduates have the desired skill set and, in fact, many are not even considered hirable by most hotel companies,” the white paper notes.

More from Economy

Inflation likely to be a big focus area for budget 2024, say sources Explained: Will the Bank of Japan break tradition and raise interest rates?

The heaviest demand will come from the mid-market segment_(see chart)_.

[caption id=“attachment_255905” align=“alignleft” width=“600” caption=“Source:HVS”]  [/caption]

Travel and tourism accounted for 4.5 percent of India’s GDP and 7.5 percent of total employment in 2011. The white paper estimates that India currently has about163,000 hotel rooms.

Currently, no city has branded hotel room supply in excess of 13,000, HVS says.Delhi and Mumbai have the maximum branded hotel rooms in the country at 12,708 and 11,303 branded rooms, respectively, the report adds, which are far lower than the hotel room inventories in other gateway cities around the world (see chart).

[caption id=“attachment_255908” align=“alignleft” width=“600” caption=“Source:HVS”]  [/caption]

The white paper predicts that India will need 188,500 additional rooms by 2021. The mid-market and budget segments are expected to witness the highest increase in hotel room supply, it adds.

Given increases in building and material costs over the past few years because of rising inflation, the average development cost per room, excluding land, can range from Rs 28 lakh (for budget hotels) to Rs 1.92 crore (for luxury properties).

[caption id=“attachment_255900” align=“alignleft” width=“600” caption=“Source:HVS”]  [/caption]

The white paper adds that the hotel industry will contribute about $25.5 billion in pure construction cost (excluding land) to the economy.