Hotels are amongst the most visible and important aspects of the travel industry. The quality and availability of accommodation at any destination determines its inflow of visitors. With greater number of people travelling for both business and pleasure, and the increase in numbers of tourists both international as well as national, the variety and complexity of needs and expectations of hotel guests in India has been greatly extended.

Consequently, the hotel industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the past three decades. In 1967, there were barely 200 approved hotels in the country. Today there are well over 1,000, and many more lodges, rest houses and budget establishments catering to travellers of all income groups. Moreover, today's hotels are better equipped and offer a greater number of services at many more locations.

Hoteliering overlaps the leisure and travel industries, and is also going through an expansion phase. It, therefore, has a huge employment capacity. It is also an area where women are employed in large numbers and are doing well. However, in general, women tend to be concentrated in the front office and housekeeping departments, with a few in functional departments such as the kitchen or engineering.

Most hotel accommodation in India, however, is situated in the four metropolitan cities and a few other -- mainly urban -- areas, with Delhi alone accounting for nearly 22 per cent of all accommodation.

Hotels are approved by the department of tourism and are classified on the basis of prescribed norms for services and facilities. These include those in the public sector such as the ITDC chain of hotels, state tourism department or other government department hotels, Indian-owned corporate hotel chains in the private sector, or single privately managed hotels, and supplementary accommodation such as rest houses, lodges, and so on.

Areas of Work: Work in the area of hotel management involves ensuring that all operations, including accommodation, food and drink and other hotel services, run smoothly. The main areas of work are as follows:

General Operations: The main responsibilities of this department include supervision coordination and administration of all other departments as well as overall financial control.

Front Office: It is the centre of all activities. Major tasks performed here include providing information, making room reservations and taking care of check-ins and check-outs, besides the duties normally performed by the personnel department of any company.

Sales & Marketing: This department keeps in touch with travel agents and tour operators as well as other potential corporate clients in order to sell hotel facilities. Advertising and public relations is also normally handled by this department.

Food & Beverages: This department is the hub of the hotel industry and is responsible for all the food that is prepared and served in the hotel.

Housekeeping: The main function of the housekeeping department is to make sure that all rooms are kept in order and all the needs of the guests are met.

Other Departments: Engineering, security, finance and personnel.

Entry: Entry into a career in hotel management can be made by taking a diploma/degree in hotel management and/or catering from a recognised foodcraft or hotel management institution for which the eligibility criterion for admission is a school leaving certificate in the 10+2 system, with English as a compulsory subject, or by joining a hotel that offers management training schemes on different aspects of hoteliering for graduates in any discipline, from a recognised university. Some large hotel chains prefer this latter route as the trainee is then absorbed into its management cadre at the end of the training period.

The selection process for all institutes of hotel management includes a written test and an interview. In addition to this, admission to courses run by some private sector hotels and to management training schemes would depend on the candidate's performance in a group discussion and/or personality tests.

Training: Training programmes are of two types. One is the statutory apprenticeship programme for certain categories of trades, like stewards, housekeeping staff, cooks and front office personnel. The other is the formal, structured programme at craft and diploma levels set up by the government and some private sector hotel groups.

The National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, an autonomous organisation instituted by the department of tourism, coordinates all related academic activities in order to ensure uniformity in training standards.

The duration of training varies between six months and three years depending upon the type of course. An essential part of the curriculum is the hands-on, practical training provided by all institutes.

There are lots of good institutions in the country, imparting professional training in hotel management. These include the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Pusa Road, New Delhi, with its 16 branches, located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Chennai, Goa, Gurdaspur, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Srinagar and Thiruvananthapuram. These institutes offer three-year diploma level programmes for school-leavers.

The three well-known hotel chains in the country also conduct hotel management training programmes at diploma/degree levels. At the undergraduate level there is the Indian Institute of Hotel Management (run by the Taj Group of Hotels), Aurangabad, which offers a three-year diploma course with on-the-job training at the Taj hotel nearby. Unlike other institutions, the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Management, Valley View Hotel, Manipal, Karnataka, offers a degree course of three years duration at the undergraduate level, with on-the-job training facilities, while the Oberoi School of Hotel Management, New Delhi, offers a graduate programme of hotel management programme of three years' duration, with training at the hotel.

Most of the private hotel chains absorb the graduates trained at these institutions or they offer placements in the many other hotel organisations that have come up in the country. In the public sector too, the ITDC takes on management trainees every year. With the present gap between the hotel industry's annual personnel requirement close to 30,000 in the numerous operational areas and the number of graduates turned out by existing institutes, barely 3,000 every year, a job at the end of the training is almost a guarantee.

Other than in hotels, both large and small, trained professionals can also find jobs in the catering departments of government organisations, in the railways, the defence services, shipping companies and in hospitals, hostels, guest houses and other institutions where there are catering establishments.

Self-employment is also a viable alternative, but involves considerable capital investment.

Hoteliering is a well-paying and fast-moving career, where upward mobility is purely merit- based. Moreover, with increasing internationalisation, jobs are likely to open up abroad offering better remuneration and opportunities for travel as well as professional and personal growth.

The writer is the author of The Penguin India Career Guide Vol I & II, and director-producer of a TV programme on careers entitled Hum Honge Kamyaab. She is also a newsreader on Doodarshan

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.