The government has to give space to the hotel industry in its development programmes or tourism will face a serious shortage of hotels and hotel rooms, according to Dinesh Khanna, president of the Federation of Hotels & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).
India has only has only around 1.20 lakh room while even a city like Los Angeles has more than 1.50 lakh and Bangkok over 1.30 lakh rooms. Khanna said the situation has to be improved drastically and the number of rooms should be increased manifold in the next couple of years.
Khanna said availability of land is the biggest stumbling block for the hotel industry, and state governments should follow the proactive and aggressive tourism development policy of Kerala, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Andhra Pradesh.
Along with making land available at reasonable rates of lease, governments could ease the floor ratio (FAR) for existing hotels to enable them to add storeys and rooms, he said.
Pointing out that the hotel industry generates high employment, the FHRAI chief urged the government to give it industry status.
With over one lakh rooms ready to be added in two to three years, the industry would require 100,000 skilled personnel. At present, the hotel management institutes in the country taken together produce only around 12,000 to 15,000 such personnel.
The chairman of the Hotels & Restaurant Association of Orissa (HARO), JK Mohanty, said the industry should be granted industry status across the country. Though several states are yet to do this and many have not extended any benefits, Orissa has led in this respect.
“In Orissa, hotels have been declared an industry since 1980 but water, power and other charges are being taken on commercial and not industrial rates,” he said.
The Federation has submitted a memorandum to the state tourism minister Debi Prasad Mishra seeking a policy frame work to support hotel industry.