In an interview, Sherry Bhatia, the recently elected President for the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) shares more about his vision for the association.

Kindly share a little bit about your journey in the hospitality segment.

I have been associated with the hospitality industry since 1980 when I established my first hotel in Mumbai. This was followed by another hotel and a resort at the Murud-Janjira beach. Today, the properties are managed and operated under my company – Golden Swan Group. The company has also ventured into leisure activities by developing Mumbai’s first Golf and Country Club in Thane. It is the only Golf Training Academy in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

What is the direction as well as your vision for HRAWI as the new President?

HRAWI is the voice of hotels and restaurants in the Western region of India. As an Association, all our members including me as its President have a common, shared vision for the industry. Broadly, it is our Associations aspiration to make Tourism and Hospitality flourish in the region. Be it taking up issues and concerns affecting the industry or liaising with the Government, we are constantly on our toes to make our industry stronger, progressive and instilled with entrepreneurial spirit. In the last six months, our industry has gone through its toughest phase. Businesses are attempting to restart in a phased manner since last month but there still are a lot of hurdles. Today the industry is facing manpower shortage, monetary issues, debts, licensing fees and statutory levies, among others. We are presently in the process of rebuilding customer confidence for patrons to know and be assured that it is safe for them to visit, dine and stay with us.

What remain the main challenges for growth of the hospitality industry in the West of India?

In my opinion, the critical issues that require Government’s support in helping the growth of hospitality in Western India are: -

1. Quality of maintenance of existing roads and highways. The infrastructure needs to be maintained at all times to cut down travel time.

2. Increasing air connectivity to all major tourism destinations like Aurangabad which attracts quite a lot of International tourists. Unfortunately, because of unavailability of easy connectivity, especially foreign tourists do not choose to explore this destination as much.

3. Giving Hospitality Sector Industry Status. This is a long pending demand of our Association. While the Government has accorded the sector the status of an industry, it remains on paper and none of its benefits have been passed on to us. As an industry, Hospitality establishments should receive reduction in Electricity Duty and fees which are presently billed on commercial tariffs, Excise License fees, and Property tax, among other statutory levies should also be considered for exemption.

What will your stance be towards Online Travel Aggregators (OTAs) as well as Online Food Aggregators (OFAs)?

Both OTA’s and Food Aggregators have to work with the industry as partners in facilitating the growth of business. However, sadly there is big gap of trust between the industry and the aggregators. We have been trying to have dialogues with them to establish fair rules and conducts of business which is mutually beneficial. So far, we have not been able to bridge the gap, but we will continue making efforts to create a win-win situation for them, our industry and most importantly, our customers.

Today everybody is stressing on experiential hotel stays. Can you recount few such experiences that domestic tourists can look forward to in the Western states of India? 

There are quite a lot of options in experiential hotel stays in the Western region. Like spa resorts, wildlife sanctuaries, beach resorts, houseboats and more, are available at reasonable price points. The idea of experiential stays is to give the tourist a taste of a community’s life and ways where tourism is being promoted. The entire stay for the tourist should be well-rounded to give them an experience of how a village, town or even city lives. The Western region is blessed with destinations which cover everything from mountains to beaches. A tourist can explore almost all kinds of landscapes here, experience the varied heritage and cultures of India. 

What benefits do the members hotels/restaurants have of being a part of HRAWI?

The biggest benefit of being a member of HRAWI is that a hotel or restaurant establishment gets to voice their concerns through the Association to the relevant people and also make it heard. For the last 70 years, HRAWI has been raising issues affecting our industry with the Government and it has almost always succeeded in making the authorities listen to us and chalk out the required resolution. The Association has extensive experience and is fortunate to have some of the industry’s most informed people on its committee.  HRAWI is recognized by the Government as the representative voice of the industry and it trusts us with our feedback and recommendations for the progress of tourism and hospitality in the region.

What expectations do you have from the Government in trying to revive hospitality?

As mentioned earlier, our top priority is to get the Government to give us the benefits of being an industry. Just receiving the status on paper does not do us any good and for the sector to prosper and grow, we need to be treated like an industry. Reducing cost of electricity, water and property tax charges are extremely critical to improve the health of the hospitality industry. To remain competitive and to attract foreign tourists to India, who today prefer to travel to our neighboring countries, we need to reduce the GST rates applicable on travel and stays among other aspects. 

The Government should also extensively promote the revival of our industry, especially now by extensively advertising and promoting on Social Media. It is required that the Government emphasizes on positive messaging to inform domestic tourists that it’s now safe to dine in restaurants and even stay in hotels or resorts.