The Indian travel and hotel industry, one of the worst affected industries by the pandemic, has started to revive as it hires employees once again. Amid the first and second wave of covid-19, several hotels and companies shut down, and thousands of employees lost their jobs.
The hospitality industry is getting ready for the holiday season with the declining rate of Covid-19 infections and widespread vaccination. Some of the leading hotel chains such as Fortune Hotels, Lemon Tree Hotels, Royal Orchid Hotels, and the travel company, MakeMyTrip, have started hiring employees.
During the lockdown, the country experienced new travel trends such as staycation and workcation. Along with the recent trends, the upcoming holiday season around Christmas and New Year and wedding bookings have increased the demand of the overall travel industry, thereby paving a path of recovery for the hospitality industry.
Some hotels focus on new staff hiring, whereas some hotels are backfilling the exits done during the country’s shutdown. Last month, Lemon Tree hotels hired 500 employees and were planning to hire additional 2000 more employees shortly. Fortune Park Hotels will also hire 500 employees by March 2022. The fresh hiring’s of Fortune Park Hotels pertains to the new properties under various sub-brands of the hotels.
Recently, it opened a new resort, Fortune Resort Benaulim, in South Goa. Also, the hotel is still looking for staff at locations such as Tiruppur, Hoshiarpur and Haldwani. Royal Orchid Hotels is also in the queue as it plans to add 400 new employees to the list. In addition to this, the hotel plans to have 100 hotels in its portfolio.
The country’s travel industry is rebounding after heavy losses during the pandemic, and thus, the online travel services company MakeMyTrip also revives. It is doing massive hiring across tech and non-tech functions. It has approximately 200 open positions for the people to join.
MakeMyTrip is hiring for all the locations and various roles. Post-Pandemic, domestic travel via flights is also picking up pace. Also, as quoted by the chief HR officer of MakeMyTrip, “Premium and five-star hotels are seeing more than 100% recovery compared to pre-pandemic times, and budget hotels have seen around 70-80% recovery.”
With the increasing demand for the travel industry, hotels’ occupancy rates have also soared, leading to more workforce for the hotels. Economists and labour markets experts believe that the worst part is over for the travel and hotel industry, and now the hospitality industry’s business will continue to rise. The hiring for the hotels is done with the belief that rough days of the pandemic are behind us.
During a pandemic, the hotel and travel industry, including five-star hotels and small peers, had to let go of many employees due to global lockdown and lack of business. The companies face a workforce shortage and rising attrition as people plan more for the holidays and vacations. Hotels and travel companies are doing incremental hiring due to the upcoming wedding and holiday season.
The companies are well aware that they will require more workforce shortly. The staff’s demand is in all the hotels’ divisions like guest relations, housekeeping kitchen, and others. In the industry, several functions depend on the migrant labourers and thus face a shortage. The industry is also experiencing a scarcity of skilled labourers. Though, the hotels and travel companies have requirements for both the tech and non-tech functions.
The Indian Government has realized the country’s potential in the tourism industry and is trying to make India a global tourism hub. In the Financial year 2020, India’s tourism sector recorded 39 million jobs, 8 per cent of the total employment in the country. By 2029, the number of jobs in the hospitality industry will increase to approximately 53 million jobs.
To boost tourism in India, the Government is taking up several steps, such as providing free loans to MSMEs to help them deal with the crisis and revive the economy; Covid-19 guidelines to be implemented effectively for the safe operations of the hotels and restaurants. International hotel chains are also increasing their presence in the country, thereby increasing the market share of the tourism and hospitality industry by 50 per cent by the year 2022.
The hospitality industry is expected to see a massive rise in business in future as it had received a cumulation Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) of USD 15.65 billion between April 2000 and March 2021. India is already an advanced nation in digital tools used for planning, booking, and experiencing a vacation or a holiday. The country is already experiencing a rise in the middle class and disposable income, thereby supporting the growth of domestic tourism.
Article Proofread and Edited by Shreedatri Banerjee
