With the impact of pandemic increasing exponentially, Kamal Kant Pant, Principal & Secretary, Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition, Pusa, New Delhi pens down his advice for the budding hospitality students.

Hospitality and Tourism has been the world-hit sector ever since the COVID pandemic hit us. People who grew up in the age of globalization taking the international movement of men and material for granted have suddenly being faced with the situation in which most of the counties are shutting themselves out from the outside world, much like the forbidden lands of the yesteryears. Countless people who worked hard to prepare themselves for careers in the hospitality sector have been in for a rude shock and are busy figuring out where they can employ these skills for decently gainful employment.

Numerous people who had nurtured this industry for their working life have suddenly found their employment status became part-time and income reduced to a fraction, if not dried up altogether. It is anybody’s guess as to how much time it will take for the industry to bounce back but whenever it does, the sad reality is that the middle aged workforce which has been forced out of the industry is least likely to be employed back again; and in their previous positions and at old emoluments, highly unlikely.

COVID pandemic has made the industry bleed profusely, the wound so created is taking too long to heal and it is going to leave a very prominent and nasty scar forever. The industry will not come back to its yesteryear self but will metamorphose into something which we are discovering little by little every day. There are several trends evident in the industry as we go along. Asset light model was a buzzword until recently, people light is emerging to be a trend now. Heavy dependence on technology and logistics solutions are being explored now. Traditional in-house kitchens as we knew them were on their way out gradually due to the availability of ready to use meat and fish cuts, vegetable cuts and French fries doing away with the need to keep in-house butchery and commissary already but the cauldrons of soups, sauces, dals, curries and gravies also becoming extinct is a possibility made real by the pandemic. There are solution providers already with factory like kitchens where they making these things available to the hospitality industry in the form of bulk packing, which just needs heating and dishing out. There are more similar innovations taking place in other areas of the hospitality industry. This segment is going to witness rapid growth and people with a flair for design thinking will find a lot of opportunities here. 

How these changes impacting and are like to impact hospitality education in the country. Big writing on the wall is that the size of the hospitality education sector in India is going to shrink drastically. The institutions which are away from the source markets of North India are going to bear the brunt by witnessing dwindling enrolments. Out of the institutions which are close to the source market, the institutions which have been quick to embrace new technology, and where the faculty have realised the importance of being in sync with the learning of the students and have become more responsive and engaged with the students, will thrive. The cost structures of the institution too needs a new look and serious effort has to be made to give an acceptable value proposition to the students by optimizing the cost structures and by passing down the benefits of saved costs to the students. The last thing that must happen is a situation of apathy by the hospitality education sector resulting in the dearth of talent for the industry in the future. 

Since the hospitality industry will spring back and spring back nice and strong, because this industry appeals not only to the psychological needs of people but also their psychological needs without the fulfillment of which the human existence is not imaginable. Therefore youngsters with a flair for hospitality must not shy away from enrolling in a good institution because by the time they graduate, the industry would have come back to full vigor and they are bound to have a wonderful career.