Hospitality sector doing brisk business in Bangalore

BANGALORE - After being hit by the global recession, the hospitality business has now seen a 15 percent increase in Bangalore city.

Many hotels groups are coming forward to start up with new ventures in the hospitality and service industry.

“We should be having a growth in number of tourists coming to India. Once that comes in, we need to have more rooms, we need to have more hotels. I think this is a very fast growing industry,” said Veer Vijay Singh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Vivanta Taj Hotels and Resorts.

“More and more hotels will come up, guessing international companies coming to India, and you will see great amount of occupancy increasing, and if there was worry that average rooms are less, then you can now relax because more influx of rooms coming in, and automatically the market will balance out,” he added.

Singh also added that the market is now showing good signs of revival, and in the current financial year, the hotel is surpassing their budget and doing better than last year.

According to the Tourism Ministry, 4.4 million tourists visited India last year, and more than five million foreign tourists are expected this year.

“Tourism industry has grown. If you look at Cumulative Average Growth Rate (CAGR) over the last 10 years, that is, over 13-14 percent average because of the downturn, it went down. So, from here onwards, the growth will be more rapid, and I see 15-16 percent growth happening in the tourism sector. But then, the supply and players are much more and obviously it is going to be very competitive, and good hotel companies are going to be successful. So, some of them those who haven’t got their act together, they are actually going to perish,” said Sanjay Sethi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Berggruen hotel.

“I think our response of the current three hotels that we own and to manage hotels are very positive, and in this month we see very good results coming out of the hotels, and we are very bullish about the season that starts from next month onwards,” he added.

The Indian hotel industry is adding about 60,000 quality rooms, which are currently in different stages of planning and development and would be ready by 2012 as per the plan of action. According to World Travel and Tourism Council, India, India ranks 18th in hospitality business and will be among the top five in this decade. By Sweta (ANI)