3-day FHRAI meet on hospitality industry concluded

After discussing key issues concerning the hospitality sector, the three-day Golden Jubilee convention of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) concluded here today.
The convention saw several important deliberations on issues concerning the hospitality industry besides giving an opportunity to the eastern states including Odisha, the host state, to showcase their iconic tourism destinations to the top echelons of hoteliers, hospitality sector stakeholders and potential investors.
Summing up the three-day convention, FHRAI's vice president Bharat Malkani said, "the hospitality industry looks forward for rapid growth in the coming days with policy support from government.
"The existing level of taxes on the hospitality industry in India are very high as compared to neighbouring countries like Singapore and Thailand even though we receive very less number of tourists than those countries," Malkani said.

This, he said, was affecting overall tourist inflow in the country.
"If the tax percentage on the industry is lowered, then we expect more tourist inflow to the country which will result in increased revenues for the government," he added.

As a takeaway from this convention, FHRAI will prepare a charter in the coming days which will be submitted in the pre-budget notes to the Government, Malkani said.
The concluding day witnessed some interesting sessions on influence of digital media and online players on hotel and hospitality industry.
The technical session on 'Social Media and Technology - Influence on Hospitality Business' focused on the new opportunities created with the advent of digital technology and the challenges it poses to the industry.

Moderating the session Mike Kistner, CEO, Resnext Global Solutions stressed that social media is emerging as strong marketing tool for the hospitality industry.
Binu Mathews, CEO, IDS Next Business Solutions said next level of connectivity is the social connectivity what you have. It is very important to analyse social media responses and action has to be taken immediately.
Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India said Travel or OTS websites attract travelers and this is the way we are making revenues. More booking sites will make for more number of shoppers and more revenue for us and hoteliers. Social Media is a bridge between our industry and consumer.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, OyoRooms.Com said social media and technology are the key aspects in hospitality business and is in fact the next generation of hospitality as "We connect with the various numbers of hotels through this technology easily.