Hotel Industry Of India Essay

THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA: THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

In general, a "hotel" is defined as a public establishment offering visitors against payment two basic services i.e. accommodation and catering . However, during the last few years great changes have taken place in the scope of hotel industry. During 6th century BC, hotels were known as "inns" or "dharamshalas" and were providing only food and overnight stay facilities. At that point of time the standard of an inn was quite normal with earth or stone floor, common bedroom and simple food. As travel became easier, inns grew in size and number. The spirit of competition raised the standard of inns.

Industrial revolution and trade expansion resulted into increase in the number of visitors crossing international border. In this era, room furnishing and catering received greater attention. Emphasis was made on accommodation with spacious assembly hall and dinning hall for organising functions and parties etc. But the real growth of the modern hotels started in the last decade of the eighteenth century with the establishment of City Hotel in New York. After that a large number of hotels of various types and grades came into existence in different countries to meet

ITDC chose the hotel industry because of its potential to earn high levels of foreign exchange, create a tourism infrastructure, and generate large-scale direct and indirect employment. Three Welcome Group Hotels were commissioned between 1975 and 1977; these were non-franchised hotels, inspired by the slogan "Be Indian, Buy Indian" and using Indian expertise. Ultimately, however, these hotels adopted the Sheraton system in 1978 and used the services of expatriates for the purposes of upgrading staff training and installing Sheraton operating systems-all without a management contract. This gave the Welcome Group a good start. When India agreed to host the 1982 Asian Games, a boost was given to the country 's hotel