HOSPITALITY OR HOTEL MANAGEMENT?

Which one should a hospitality student consider?

- DR. RUCHITA VERMA

Hospitality management is a newly-coined term as compared to hotel management. Traditionally, hotel management colleges were filling up the requirements of various hotel-related jobs. They covered the fundamental requirements necessary for these job profiles, such as communication, customer service and personality skills.

Following globalisation, Indians had more disposable income, which resulted in rapid growth of the hospitality and tourism sector. As a result, specialisation was required to manage multiple industries including cruise liners, airlines, luxury retail, hospitality consulting, event and travel management.

Additionally, a whole gamut of internet-based services such as food service aggregators, online travel management companies and accommodations service platforms like Airbnb evolved. To meet this growing demand, hospitality management education started incorporating management education along with core traditional hotel management courses.

OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND

Today, there is a huge demand amongst youngsters who want to pursue hospitality management courses because of the wider coverage of industries and multiple career options that come with these programmes. Many hospitality graduates come with an open mind to hospitality schools and, towards the end of the course identify their passion for a particular field and focus their strengths to excel in their area of interest.