'Hospitality industry needs to tackle attrition'

Even as it continues to grapple with the low influx of tourists in Gujarat despite observing the first 'Tourism Year' in 2006, the Hotel & Restaurants Association is yet to tackle another issue: high attrition rate.

According to Rabinder Singh Bedi, president, Hotel & Restaurant Association (Western India), the attrition rate of the hotel industry is as high as 35-40 per cent.

"The industry needs to tackle the high attrition rate. We are losing most of our staff to the IT & ITeS sector, airlines, cruise liners and even hotels in Dubai and Europe at times. Surprisingly, it is happening at all the levels and not just at the top level," said Bedi. He added that the association will attempt to tackle the issue at the upcoming 14th Regional Convention on March 18 in Ahmedabad.

The association is looking forward to offering more suggestions to the state government, relaxation on prohibition being one of them.

"We definitely want the prohibition to be relaxed in the state. In fact, there should be more bar-licenced hotels just to benefit the industrial growth of the state," said Jehangir Cama, chairman, H&RA (Gujarat).

Cama revealed that it was the association who had been suggesting the state government to relax the prohibition since last 10 years.

On the areas of improvement in tourism, Cama said that the budget hotels are the real answer.

"There are more number of budget hotels than five-star hotels in the country. This shows that these hotels will be the answer. There is a lack of infrastructure when it comes to tourism, with low number of hotels and rooms being one of them. Therefore, at least 2,500 rooms would be coming up in the next couple of years in the state and 30,000 across the country," he added.

The association would also be suggesting the government to bring tourism under the ministry of infrastructure for better management, said Cama.

H&RA feels that Gujarat needs to endorse ideas from its neighbouring states like Rajasthan in promoting tourism and restoring and maintaining its historical monuments.

"The problem in the state is lack of awareness and not lack of places to visit. Also, lot of restoration work is needed. Even the association will be suggesting the government to allow private players to partially adopt some of the historical monuments for restoration and maintenance work just like Jaisalmer Fort was taken up for restoration by American Express," said Sunit Kothari, chairman for the convention.

Kothari is expecting an investment of around Rs 150-200 crore (Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 billion) in the state in near future for increasing the number of rooms in the state by 2,500.