Looking for double success in homeground
FHRAI representing the hospitality sector in India, will host its 47th Annual Convention on September 6-8, 2012 to brainstorm on the ongoing challenges regarding employment generation in the industry…
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Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) is looking at garnering a huge participation from stakeholders. Talking about the upcoming convention, Kamlesh Barot, President, FHRAI says,
The Association is also reconsidering its decision to hold the convention at Grand Hyatt Goa. The convention scheduled from September 6-8, 2012, will have the theme ‘Employment Generation: Engine of Inclusive Growth’.
Elaborating on the ongoing challenge regarding employment generation in the industry and its support to the government initiatives towards this goal, Barot says, “The hotels in both classified and unclassified segment will register a spiral growth in the near future. For bridging the gap of skilled labour in the industry, the Ministry of Tourism has launched a training programme called ‘ Hunar Se Rozgar Tak’, to create employable skills in the interested youth within the age group of 18- 25 years. The number of beneficiaries under this scheme has already exceeded the target. The target was to train around 5,500 people but till date almost 9,600 students have been trained.” This only means that the hospitality industry is giving full support to this cause of employment generation in the industry.
The President of the apex body representing the hospitality industry has also predicted a flat growth rate for the sector as a result of higher service taxes introduced in the budget this year. According to Barot, the hike in service tax from 10 to 12 per cent in the budget has affected the growth prospects of the sector. “The industry is witnessing a growth of about 5.5 to six per cent at the moment. While, it could have grown at a pace of eight- nine per cent this year but, the government policies are responsible for a flat growth of 5.5 per cent this year,” he laments.