Hospitality Education in India: Issues and Challenges

In the last two decades, tourism has been contributing 6% of world output, one in 15 jobs and 7% of capital investment. According to UNWTO, it can double its contribution to worlds output, increases job by 33% and capital investment can jump by 80%. India has a distinctive culture and way of life, there is amazing cultural diversity throughout the country. Every state has carved out its own cultural niche. Unlike other export industries, there is comparatively little investment needed for promoting tourism. The scope for its expansion is unlimited. It is an industry, a source of income, especially of foreign exchange and an exercise in national image building. Government of India felt the importance of hospitality education and under the umbrella of ministry of tourism set up IHMs and ITTMs. IHMs were set up to cater the manpower demand in the field of catering and hotels. Similarly, ITTMs were dealing with manpower requirement in travel and tourism. Values and culture are inculcated in normal Indian since childhood hence automatically becomes inbuilt component of hospitality education. This gives Indian hospitality graduates broader horizon towards the trade and opens scope of their employment globally. Institute-industry interface existed in form of industrial exposure and other short term training programs as part of curriculum. There is a need of educational and administrative reforms in hospitality institutes, teaching and research. Teacher’s perks and pays are to be made comparable to other sector to attract better talent in hospitality education. There is lot of scope of research and projects on various aspects of hotels. There could be very innovative, meaningful and useful for society as well as Industry. So, Higher education and research bodies are required to recognize it as important and potential area for study. Accordingly, encouragement in form of financial-funding and support is the need of the hour.