Two significant statements, made by two well-known industry figures, were the highlights of the insightful second panel discussion centred around the theme of 'Vision 2020: Old Challenges, New Solutions'.

Saeed Shervani, the past president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), urged the many associations representing the industry's interests to come together under the banner of one body and speak in one voice so that together they can become an influential voice in the highest policy-making bodies of the government.

Coming from an industry voice that's heard with respect, it was indeed sage advice. Shervani also urged the industry to pay attention to the vast domestic travel market and not to under-estimate the intense competition from the low-priced, 2.4 million-rooms-strong 'unsegmented segment'.

Another go-to man of the industry, Manav Thadani, who's Chairman (Asia Pacific), HVS International, and also Chairman, WTTC, India Initiative, said if certain new hotel owners were saddled with stressed assets, it wasn't because they were advised wrongly, but because they gave Return on Ego (RoE) more importance than Return on Investment (RoI), which was why they were obsessed with developing five-star hotels in markets that could not sustain them.

But it was Kapil Chopra, President, The Oberoi Group, and Vice Chairman, WTTC, India Initiative, who did some plain talking. Pointing to the classic Indian experience of good intentions being jettisoned by poor "last-mile execution", Chopra said the new government was only implementing initiatives of its predecessors and only engaging in marketing talk.

"We need to see action, but we have only heard statements of good intentions," Chopra said, adding that he did not see any reason to exude optimism at this point in time.

During the discussion, he made a pitch for Private Public Partnership (PPP) to alleviate the burden of high capital costs. He questioned the rationale of five-star hotels coming up in places such as Dwarka, Rohini and Paschim Vihar -- markets that needed better-appointed banquet halls more than luxury hotels.

Chopra said the New Delhi Aerocity was an ill-advised move that would achieve little. He advised the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to put the 15,000 acres of unutilised land, which it has discovered belongs to it, to intelligent use. The national capital, he said, needed world-class convention facilities that would support the hospitality industry boom that was taking place in it.

In a discussion that saw the new hotel owners coming under attack for being starry-eyed, Kartikeya Sharma, Managing Director, Piccadilly Group, struck a positive note when he pointed out that Hyatt Regency Gurgaon, within one year of opening, had established itself as a successful MICE hotel and wedding destination, and broken even.

"Just to give you one example, Microsoft has had 12 conferences in the hotel," he said, and then gave the examples of the many other prestigious events it had seen in its vast banqueting spaces. "We achieved a 67 per cent occupancy rate, which is very good for a hotel in its first year, and though the ARR (average room rate) is an issue, we have broken even," Sharma added with aplomb.

Thadani ended the discussion sharing Sharma's positive outlook. The untapped potential, especially in Tier-II and -III cities, is so vast that there's plenty of room for growth, he said. Investors seem to share this optimism, for, as Thadani pointed out, HVS International's advisory business has never grown as much as it did in 2014.

The takeaway: The impulse for growth needs to be tempered with caution and good business sense.