Association

To serve and to protect

With the Indian hospitality industry growing at the rate of 15 per cent annually, it makes it imperative for the industry to have a body like the Hotel & Restaurant Association (Western India) to ensure that the running is smooth

The current economic liberalisation coupled with a huge figure of the growing expat community within India, a rising number of international flights in and out of the country, a growing disposable income, flourishing businesses among most cities and the government's efforts to promote tourism have all contributed in giving a new impetus to the hospitality industry of India. Today, many leading domestic and international hotels, restaurant chains and realty developers have recognised India as the hotspot for hospitality and foodservice investment.

The economic boom has in turn resulted in the advent of corporate incentive travel and the multinational companies entering India have boosted the prospects of tourism. India's easy visa rules and attraction as an ancient civilisation make tourism development easier in comparison to other countries. Several international hotel chains like Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott International, Four Seasons, etc are either entering or expanding their network in India. The Indian hospitality industry and Indian tourism are on a roll today, driven by a huge surge in both business and leisure travel by domestic and foreign tourists.

The importance of the hospitality and tourism industry for the Indian economy is evident from the fact that:

• The growth of the tourist inflows in India is much above the world average leading to a rise in India's share in world arrivals from 0.37 per cent in 2001 to 0.53 per cent in 2006.
• It contributed to 5.9 per cent of the GDP and provided employment to 41.8 million people.
• The cumulative FDI into the hotel and tourism sector from 1991 to March 2007 has been US$ 517.83 million, representing 1.18 per cent of the total FDI into the country.

These facts and figures clearly state that tourism and hospitality are complementary to each other. Today, even cities like Jaipur, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore are seeing growth both in occupancy and room rates. While occupancy is around 75-80 per cent, room rates are up by 15-20 per cent in these markets. In a scenario like this, bodies like HRAWI play an important role as they are working towards the betterment of not only their own members but also the entire hospitality industry.

The Hotel & Restaurant Association (Western India), or HRAWI, was incorporated on February 3, 1951 as a company limited by guarantee and not having share capital. The primary objective of the association is to serve the interest of the hotel and restaurant industry. It has over the last several years taken major steps to encourage, promote and protect the interest of member establishments.

It is now time that HRAWI is looked upon as a cohesive body of professionals who can be extremely effective in implementing national level projects. It is an association which is taking an initiative to give national recognition to the Indian hospitality industry. With members such as Dinesh Khanna of The Club (Andheri) on board who is also the president of FHRAI, HRAWI is now working towards expanding its members list by bringing in small players on board leading to development of the entire industry from the roots.

The hospitality industry is facing a lot of problems today and issues due to lack of co-operation and support from the government. To improve the current scenario, HRAWI will be addressing state IAS officials, and will be presenting them with a memorandum of demands and issues, appealing to the government to cooperate with them in changing the present scenario of the Indian hospitality industry. A change in the present situation will definitely result in the betterment of the hospitality industry on the whole.