HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY – REOPENING IN THE POST COVID PHASE | By Mousumi Kalita Sachdeva
The outbreak of Covid19 has hit almost all the industries so hard that industries like hospitality and tourism are dwelling in doubts to rise post covid with less chances of the flow of visitors. Various Tier Two and Tier Three hotel markets in India witness drastic erosion in business with no occupancies due to constant lockdown and the fear of getting infected. Restrictions on travel and tourism have brought a halt to the flow of visitors thus incurring losses to the hospitality industry.
According to a report, the cascading effect of the coronavirus (Covid 19) pandemic will cost the Indian hospitality industry losses to the tune of ₹620 crore. The hotel chain and standalone hotel segment is staring at losses over ₹130-155 crore, whereas the alternate accommodation segment is likely to make losses of over ₹420-470 crore. Layoffs of ‘casual staff’ or ‘contracted staff’ is likely, a research suggested. The reduced traffic to the hotels will also have an obvious cascading effect on revenue from F&B, MICE and other commissions.
The Indian standalone and chain hotel segment has over 1.4 lakh rooms which accounts for only 5 per cent in the hotel industry segment. According to the report, the overall loss of total revenue for the around 140,000 branded/organised hotel rooms across the country will be anywhere between ₹130-155 crore. “This amounts to a 27 per cent to 32 per cent erosion in the overall revenue as compared to last year.”
Over 95 per cent of the Indian hospitality industry is dominated by Bed & Baths (B&Bs), Guest Houses, “it is our estimate that there is likely to be an additional loss of anywhere between ₹420-470 crore in total revenue across the alternate accommodation industry.”
It has often been stated that the larger tourism industry in India contributes to about 10 per cent of the GDP (approximately US$275 billion). It may not be an overstatement to assert that almost all of this revenue may dwindle to a painfully negligible amount if COVID-19 does not come to a halt this year.
Adding to these woes is the fact that anywhere between 15 and 25 per cent of the employees of the various branded hotel chains in India are either contracted or casual staff. It may not be evident to many that about 8 to 10 per cent of the total staff strength of the global cruise liners are Indians. These people become the weak link to the whole chain and it is evident that it may break them first
Beginup talks to a few people associated with this industry and their views really are of great to the industry and the employees depending on its progress.
On the present status (Covid Stage) of the Hospitality Industry, Mr Tushar Pravin Joshi,Principal designer Concept & Interior designing –Hotel Noor Noor mahal -Karnal speaks,
This has caused an unpredictable market crisis that any of the sectors has ever witnessed. Undoubtedly, the hardest industries hit in this crisis is the hospitality and tourism which are interdependent on each other. We as hoteliers anticipate the upcoming months might be tough for the hospitality industry with no definite vision of a recovery. It would be a long time for guests to trickle in as confidence is at an all-time low. Now only timely Government intervention can give us a new lease of life. We would reiterate that as an industry, our hotels and restaurants are at the helm. We also feel that post the lockdown; domestic travel will be the future for the hospitality industry. Given how the pandemic has created both physical and economic duress, the first thought on travellers (Guests) minds will be proximity and low-cost safe travel.
It is really a matter to worry if the industry pace up soon. On this he says,
Success will be met definitely in the hospitality industry and it will surely pace up.Digitization is an entirely new way of offering services and experiences to customers. We will be definitely required a substantial capital investment in technologically-advanced features and an Omni channel strategy, amongst other things. The truth which we consider is that the pandemic is temporary and shall pass. We should continue to plan for the future, as well as take steps to reduce long-term damage from coronavirus and drive faster recovery. To build a trust and confidence among our guests we will have to strongly work on lot of aspects: –
Follow regularly on the government’s relief schemes.
Attract Millennial Travellers.
Use our current time for In house hotel Maintenance.
Focus on meal delivery from the F&B outlets.
Reconsider existing health & Safety techniques, Policies with all procedures.
Ensuring the accuracy of the information on the coronavirus.
On the losses faced, he says.
Our hotels’ sector sailed smoothly into January 2020, after a record year in 2019, with 2020 set to be ‘even bigger’. We first started feeling the ripple effects of the global COVID-19 turmoil towards the end of February 2020, which worsened at the beginning of March. Occupancy across in our hotel declined rapidly and as per our estimates has declined by a staggering 60 percentage points compared to the previous year. Such a steep decline in such a short period of time has never been witnessed by our sector.
Speaking about the the employees engaged,
We are strictly following government advisories and guidelines on hygiene and cleanliness. We are conducting awareness sessions on COVID-19 for the entire staff and organizing regular training sessions for our housekeeping staff to follow high standard hygiene protocols. Our staff is taking the utmost care of hand hygiene as it is key to help combat the spread of virus. We are frequently sanitising every nook and corner of the hotel. We are maintaining ample supply of cleaning products and disinfectants which are effective against viruses. Our housekeeping staffs are well trained to pay special attention to Guest room’s hygiene post guest departure and before the arrival of the next guest. The staff is frequently disinfecting all the key hand touch points in guest rooms, public spaces and office staff areas so as to ensure safe stay of our frontline Covid-19 warriors.
The palace-turned-hotel is now offering its rooms for Corona warriors including healthcare workers, police personnel, and supermarket employees so that they can stay close to their places of work and avoid worrying about mistakenly contracting and spreading the virus to their loved ones. Additionally, the hotel is also offering free meals to migrant workers and those in need living in and around Karnal. So far, the hotel has managed to successfully distribute more than 70,000 meals in the past 30 days and is committed to continuing to provide more than 1,500 meals per day going forward.
Noor Mahal, Karnal has taken a slew of initiatives to showcase its hospitality to the community in the unprecedented time of pandemic COVID 19. The hotel is providing the salaries to our employees. There has been a quarantine zone (Staff Dormitory) created for the in-house staff to stay also respite to any healthcare workers, police personnel and supermarket employees who need to stay close to work and also providing help. We as a family are concerned about their living here and updating the situations to their loved ones.
Not all are able to secure the jobs of the people employed under this industry. However, a hope is kept alive by trying to meet the monthly salaries.
We feel the situation is the same for everyone in the industry, bigger or smaller, but for us we believe in hand holding, especially in these difficult times. We are doing various motivational as well as positive guidance sessions with staff to make them feel comfortable and steer them through these times. There is no retrenchment policy followed by us, and we ensure there is no loss of job in our employees’ family.
The people associated with this industry like the interior and arch designing firms/ food/ etc are waiting for the virus to disappear and begin days of normalcy.
At a time now our deep thinkers have argued the Novel Coronavirus which has changed the world forever. Among them we as are leading architects & Interior Designers have recently weighed in with views on how their industry will be forever altered in the wake of the pandemic. Its nearly our industry is getting pummelled by the spread of COVID-19, and architecture is no exception. In late March, we created a group of Architects as well as interior designers of our fraternity conducted a survey of 387 architecture firm leaders, and the results suggest a deeply uncertain future for the profession. Two-thirds of the firms that responded said projects had either stopped or slowed down as a result of COVID-19, and a whopping 94% said they anticipate revenue to dip. Respondents expected their losses to only deepen in April. The damage will be far-reaching, impacting individual practitioners, firms, and the profession at large. Firms are already furloughing workers and slashing pay. Foster + Partners, every prominent architecture firms in the world, announced that its 1,400 workers would take a 20% pay cut for three months. In India designers working on public projects have been ordered to suspend their design work indefinitely. So many designers and designing firms are in to small businesses have been especially hard hit by the economic fallout from COVID-19. The architecture and design community faces both long-term and immediate challenges and opportunities, we will now create new digital format—the Future Forum: Webinar—to help our industry leaders discuss the way forward and provide opportunities for members of the community to stay connected.
Further on the near future of this industry, he views-
We are still predicting the second quarter of the year to be the worst hit. We will be unable to drive rates and may even seek to attract business at deep discounts.
The overall occupancy in our hotels segment in 2020 is estimated to decline by 20.7 – 35.5 percentage points over 2019, while ADRs are estimated to decline by 10% to 12% for the year. The reduced traffic to the hotels will have an obvious cascading effect on revenue from F&B, MICE and other commissions. While performance in the current quarter will be bleak, expectations of high of sharp rebound in post-lockdown days We will have to do Budget reallocations, diversion of marketing spends, postponing investment plans, and consolidation are among the measures which we will have to take as hospitality and food & beverage (F&B) industry players are embarking on to deal with the fallout of the 90 days (Approximately calculated as per the current scenario) lockdown in the country.
As of now, many have already lost their jobs with inability to operate soon. A captain in the Food and Beverage department of a reputed hotel expresses his plight saying his salary is pending since March and no employees are being paid but kept with only hopes. Frustration is at the peak and the Finance Minister is yet to announce some relief for this industry.
The situation is indeed grave, yet hopes have not faded. The hospitality industry is now all set to provide assistance to the corona fighters in various ways. They are waiting for the situation to calm down and welcome tourism which remains the base of their progress.
