Infra focus to help hotels, tourism: Indian Hotels CEO
Premium- When India becomes an even larger economy, not just leisure travel, but business travel will also increase
NEW DELHI : The pandemic has put everything under the lens, and forced the tourism industry to evaluate sustainable options for growth.
“Now the focus is on inclusive growth, which is sustainable and climate resilient," said Hotel Association of India’s president and managing director and chief executive, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd, Puneet Chhatwal, in an interview, on the sidelines of the 5th HAI Hoteliers’ Conclave in New Delhi.
Chhatwal said Indian tourism requires collaboration between the government and private players to encourage investments. Such collaborations could create business opportunities and help generate employment, he added.
“The biggest beneficiary of investments in infrastructure will be the hotels and tourism sector."
Under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), the government has sanctioned ₹102 trillion ($1.3 trillion) for the five-year period between FY19 and FY25, to create social and economic infrastructure.
Hospitality companies can make India an all-year-round destination, Chatwal said.
“When India becomes an even larger economy, not just leisure travel, but business travel will also increase. Today foreign institutional investors and countries are far more bullish on India than ever. Sone states are proactively making that change happen as tourism is a state subject. For instance, Maharashtra has reduced the number of licences required to start a hotels business from 70 to just 10," he added.
Tourism isn’t just a luxury industry but a huge opportunity that India has capitalized on as it has direct and indirect impact on jobs, Chhatwal said.
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We have world-class convention halls in Delhi (at Pragati Maidan and India International Convention as well as in Expo Centre in Dwarka) and Mumbai (Jio World Centre) and can be an attractive destination for the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector, he added.
The government’s new tourism policy will be tabled before the G20 summit and it will give another impetus to tourism.
In September, the Centre said it was contemplating a separate tourism board to promote India in overseas markets.
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