Careers in Hospitality - Part - 1

Did you know that the Hospitality Sector is the second largest recruiter in India? “Hospitality Sector” includes travel – rail, airline, buses, taxi etc. and hotels, restaurants, resorts etc.

The Hospitality Industry offers employment opportunities to a wide range of job seekers from professionals to unskilled workers. The revenues of the hospitality industry in India is anticipated to touch US$ 418.9 billion or 25 lakh crore by 2022. The hospitality industry plays a key role in the overall economic growth of the country. With the rapid industrial growth and promotion of tourism, the catering and hotel sector is booming, creating a huge number of jobs.

A survey by the Ministry of Tourism indicates that there is a demand for 2.03 lakh trained hospitality professionals every year; 66 percent of whom are employed in direct delivery of the services and 34 percent at a managerial level. The demand for talent in this industry is higher than in “high volume” industries such as IT, BPO, Retail and BFSI.

Hotel professionals have the highest number of jobs in this industry and a recent study reported a 15 per cent growth in demand for talent. Only 18000 qualified professionals are produced by institutes every year and this has led to a huge gap between demand and supply. India has nearly 150 approved institutes, both government and private. Admissions to these institutes are done through a Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

Hospitality management is no more about just getting into hotels –there are a wide range of career options available to qualified graduates from these institutes. The industry provides jobs in food and beverage service, housekeeping, front office operation, sales and marketing, accounting, tourism, cruise ship management, etc. which require a combination of skills learned in the institutes. Apart from these, jobs are available in sales & marketing, human resources, accounts/ finance, security, etc.

The industry has been flourishing for the past few years. The diversity of experience in hospitality management is greater than in any other profession. There are chains of hotels, which operate internationally providing career opportunities throughout the world. With the growth of hospitality industry propelled by foreign and domestic tourism and business travel, the demand for well-trained candidates too has grown impressively.

Hospitality sectors
• Hotels

• Contract Catering
• Hospitality Services
• Restaurants
• Travel
• Taxi Services

New concepts in hospitality
• Time Share
• Convention hotels
• Outsourcing managers
• Spa and Wellness
• Health Tourism
• Event management

Do you fit?
• Are you a people’s person?
• Do you have a passion for serving people and catering to their needs?
• Are you smart and have a presentable personality?
• Do you have good communications and soft skills including listening skills?
• Are you creative and spontaneous?
• Do you possess problem solving skills?
• Are you flexible as regards working hours? (These are not regular 9- 5 jobs)

Then hospitality is the sector where you can make a successful career. You should be ready to work hard and passionately, and you will find the environment suitable for rapid growth. The dire shortage of desired skills in this sector has created an environment for rapid growth. The compensation for entry level positions is a little lower to salaries for similar positions in engineering or IT but compensation grows rapidly with experience, the city and size of the establishment. Management level salaries start at yearly salaries of Rs 5 lakhs which could go up to Rs 1 crore or even higher. Increments in 2014 are reported to be around 10 per cent on average.

This industry offers tremendous opportunity for entrepreneurs – those who want to be self employed.