India's Hospitality Industry: Prospects And Challenges

Despite several challenges, India’s hospitality industry has shown impressive performance during 2018.

- Jhuma Biswas

According to the market report titled ‘India Hotel Market Review 2018’, which is a collaboration of STR and Howarth HTL, at all India level, occupancy was the highest during 2018 since the last 10 years; ADR the highest since 2012. RevPAR for Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Jaipur was the highest in 2018 since the last 10 years; for Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi, it was the highest since 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively. The report was published in February 2019.

“During 2018, foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India stood at 10.56 million, achieving a growth rate of 5.20 percent year-on-year. FTAs in January 2019 stood at 1.10 million, up 5.30 percent compared to 1.05 million year-on-year,” informs IBEF. The impressive growth in foreign tourist arrivals portends well for the hospitality industry.

An industry expert also echoed similar sentiment. “Altogether it was a great year for India’s hotel industry, not only in terms of occupancies but in terms of ARR also. There were many up and downs in the year but on an average it was a fantastic year for the industry. Increase in Revpar was the most positive sign for India’s hotel industry during 2018-2019. ” expressed Sanzeev Bhatia, VP & GM, The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa, New Delhi.

A Buoyant Trend

The future of India’s hotel industry also seems to be promising. It seems medical tourism, destination weddings and MICE would play important roles in the near future in fostering the growth of India’s hospitality industry.