'Hotel' by Arthur Halle had intrigued me as a dreamy teenager. I
was absolutely eager to know the veritable nuances of Hospitality industry. Blogging provided me lots
of opportunities to review many hotels but still I was nowhere
near knowing the REAL , actual Hotel functioning.
We have ice-capped Himalayas, fort-fulls of Sahyadri mountains,
valleys, Ganges, Godawari rivers, lush green forests, picturesque islands
spectacular biodiversity, exotic flora & Fauna, sprawling metropolises,
IT hubs, exquisite natural wonders which we can monetize if the tourism and
hospitality work in tandem. Next is Guest. Types of guests , such as Generation Z ,
Millenials, more reclusive , private , wishing for curated , personalized
experiences Generation Y ( public sharing, exhibitionist ) , Generation X ,
Baby boomers, their preferences , their spending choices , powers and how it
all affects the hospitality industry.
I was totally enchanted with whichever Five star hotels I visited
in Mumbai for press conferences and wished for answers for all of above. You
may imagine my joy when I happened to strike Gold with blogposts such as 'Excellence
Lies in the Grey ', 'The Brand called Guest' , How the digital world has affected
the luxury hotel industry' from Mr. Indrajeet Banerjee (IB), a
Hospitality & Marketing Stalwart with 24 years of exclusive experience in
the industry. IB
has very recently been conferred “The Iconic Hotelier 2017” award presented by
Times Network and felicitated with “The Most Influential Sales & Mktg
Leader of the Decade (2007-2017)” title by CMO Asia at Sentosa, Singapore.
Each and every word IB uttered about Excellence in Hospitality
industry, was totally in sync with his joyous & amp; kind behaviour. He
made me feel really comfortable with his undivided attention to my views and
was extremely hospitable. I was amazed to see that the serving staff were
treated so warmly by him and could dare to chat with him frankly – it spoke
about the down to earth human being within the mask of a luxury hotelier.
When I read his erudite LinkedIn posts, I was expecting kind of a
studious, a bit aloof official person. Thank God and thanks to the perfect
upbringing of his loving Mom, he proved my bookish judgement wrong. His
astonishing life-story about humble background and achieving the glorious
summit at the young age through sheer passion, determination, discipline and
smart work mesmerized us instantly. Meeting and learning about IB's dazzling
career was like reading an exciting novel. His love & dedication to his
mom made a tender yet lasting impression on me. I would so like to recite his
biography to my nephew. If he can emulate at least the way IB loves his Mom, I
will be blessed forever.
Let's find out about his experiences in the hospitality space,
straight from IB's mouth for our readers
:
How has the Hospitality industry evolved since the day you joined
and how it has added dimensions to your personality?
Over the
years power has moved from Brands to People.
The industry
today has evolved, customers are far more informed, have greater choices, are
much more vocal about their experiences and the hotels ability to stroke the
business through one on one interaction are far less. We dont see a substantial
percentage of our customers today - such is the impact of automation. Globally
guests book through online channels and self booking tools. The master stroke
today no longer lies in effective sales calls, it lies in effectively
understanding the online buying behavior and projecting the brand based on
target market and the brand promise it demands.
This
phenomenal change in buying behaviour was a wake up call to re-skill my self
and unlearn all that I followed over the years as conventional sales.
What is the Indian
perspective of Hospitality?
Luxury, for me, is Indian hospitality.
Our approach to guest satisfaction evolves from our culture - Atithi Devo Bhava – Guest is God.
Hence, in Indian Hospitality there is no cookie cutter aproaches,
guest is not considered a room number only and chokolates on the pillow are’nt
enough. It is about treating a guests
just the way one would treat him at his/her own home.
Our constant endeveour to keep striving towards raising the bar of
guest experience sets Indian hospitality in a league of its own.
What is the current
scenario of Indian Hospitality industry vice versa Indian tourism?
****Indian Tourism is growing rapidly. The World Travel &
Tourism Council calculated Indian Tourism to have contributed 9.6% to the nations
GDP and supported 40,343 million jobs which is 9.3% of its total employment.
The sector is predicted to grow at 6.8% annuually. The Travel & Tourism
Competetiveness Report 2017 ranks India 36th among 136 countries.
The World Tourism Organisation reported that India’s reciepts from tourism in
2012 ranked 16th in the world and 7th among Asian and
Pacific countries. (references mentioned below)
India is rich in every way – a country that provides tourism with a
canvas of diverse experinces to choose from. Be it mountains and the valleys,
beaches and the back waters, healing or the heritage. This supported by
e-visa’s, brilliant connectivities, infrastructure and the culture of Atithi Devo Bhava sets the country apart
The hospitality sector is managing this exciting journey
brilliantly. The sector is adopting the new trend of customer buying skewed
towards global digital platforms at the right pace. It has been able to arrive
at a beautiful and delicate balance of e-management and at the same time
maintain its unique approach towards an experiencial selling and brand delivery
through the digital platforms.
What is the role of social
media ( Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.) in Public Relations , Advertising,
Marketing of Hotel's image building?
The industry
today has evolved, customers are far more informed, have greater choices and
are much more vocal about their experiences . All this on/due to the social
media.
Tomorrow
belongs to Digitalization.
The delivery
of the brand is aggressively shifting towards the online space. How effectively
has one been able to project its brands promise and narrow the gap between the
“aspired” and “perceived” brand positioning in the online space will determine the
hospitality leaders of tomorrow.
4 comments:
Nice interview.
Thanks Abhijit. The Mumbai bloggers enjoyed learning the nuances of Hospitality industry from Mr. Indrajeet Banerjee ( IB )
Visited Mumbai just twice. Once during an industrial tour when I was in college. The other time when I was to attend a job interview. Those days it was called Bombay. Nice interview. Seems to be a very humble man in spite of rising to such great heights.
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