Achieving Global Competitiveness in Tourism Sector in India

PROFESSOR NAWAB ALI KHAN

Department of Commerce
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh

Introduction

Tourism, a service oriented industry has emerged as one of the largest and fastest
industries in India. It has become one of the most efficient and dependable earners of
foreign exchange of the country. Not only the centre but the state governments too have
begun to invest in tourism infrastructure and facilities to capitalise on this growing
industry. As a result, this industry has assumed huge proportions and diverse forms
outpacing the manufacturing and extractive industries as a catalyst of the development
process in the national and global perspective. It is an ever expanding industry with a
large and vast latent growth potential .Tourism which was a luxury in the past is no
longer the privilege of only a few. It has turned into a normal and indispensable
consumer product due to higher incomes, increased leisure, extending mobility, higher
standard of living etc. There has been a transformation from early 20th century concept of
tourism as an exercise in leisure and pleasure to the concept of tourism as an exercise in
business and economics ,especially so since economic liberalisation. The challenges
posed by the sophisticated consumer of tourist product call for the development of
human resources and expertise in tour and travel business. The employees of tourism
organisations are in constant touch with the national and international tourist. Therefore,
their education and training is a pre-requisite to deal with them tactfully. Thus Human
Resource Development (HRD) is the most pertinent issue that the tourism is facing today
and would continue to confront in the new millennium also as tourism industry is likely
to have a resource crunch in terms of availability of trained human resource. To achieve
global competitiveness in tourism sector HRD strategies would play a significant role. It
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is in this backdrop, that the present paper endeavours to assess the emerging dimensions
of HRD for tourism in global business environment in India.

Issues and Strategies

Tourism is one of the most challenging and least understood of various modern
business organisations. Perhaps, the most spectacular aspect of tourism sector is that
here main product for sale is not material goods but human service which is very difficult
to standardise. Moreover, sales, promotion, and consumption of service take place almost
simultaneously while there is usually a long time lead between production and
consumption of a product. A service can not be centrally produced, inspected, stockpiled
or warehoused-it is usually delivered where the consumer is, by the people who are
beyond the immediate influence of management. In addition, a service can not be
demonstrated, nor can a sample be sent for customer approval in advance for purchase. A
customer receiving the service generally owns nothing tangible once the service has been
delivered –the value is generally internal to customer. As mentioned earlier, the delivery
of a service usually requires some degree of human contacts - receiver and renderer
come together in a relatively personal way. Thus quality control over a service requires
monitoring of processes and attitudes of staff. However, at the same time one should not
ignore the fact that quality of service also depends on the tourist himself and thus may
vary from tourist to tourist. One tourist who tips well and who knows how to handle
people will get top performance, while another who lacks both finance and tact will get
the minimum. Any way, the endeavour is not to deal with the client and his behaviour.
The core of the discussion is attainment of global competitiveness through HRD
strategies in this sector. As such, it has become imperative that the tourism sector should
concentrate on HRD system for grooming HR in such a manner as to flourish and
achieve international competitiveness in tourism. The important issues of HRD strategies
may be identified as:

- Analysis of labour market

- Job design and job evaluation

- Recruitment, selection, appointment and induction

- Equal opportunities
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- Training and development

- Salaries, wages, incentives and fringe benefits

- Employee turnover

- Termination of job

- Redressal of grievances

- Personal and technological administration of personnel etc.

These issues should be accorded top priority by the HR managers to minimise the
shortage of adequately trained human resource. Since due to lack of professionalism in
the approach of HRD, the tourist have to face inordinate delays at airports, horrendous
experiences in railway and road transportation, unpleasant stays in hotel etc. The trends
towards consumerism, the changing competitive climate all have forced companies to re-
examine their relationships with customers. As a result, the customer service has become
a strategic tool. It is regarded as an expense and seen as a positive force for increasing
sales – and for reducing the cost of sales. Effective customer care is more significant
than the training of the staff in smiling, pleasant manner and complaint handling. Good
customer relations come from a total management culture within an organisation.

This calls for a revolutionary change in the role of HR Managers in this sector. It
is the HR Managers who will create opportunities for people to express and develop their
talents and competence. The concern and concept of quality have undergone a change.
The new perspective of quality comprises the total reorientation of organisation. It is
about managing Total Quality – quality of tourist product, process and the consciousness
of human resource employed in the organisation. It ensures continuous improvement
which is why TQM has become a way of life today in the manufacturing sector.
However, the tourism sector has been rather slow to get the momentum and has recently
begun to see the relevance of quality. The priority of HR department should be for
developing a quality culture rather than merely acquiring the quality award or
certification. What needs to be initiated is a conscious attempt to gear up the system and
procedure. Orientation and capabilities of HR should focus to provide quality of service
as expected by various categories of customers and not a particular service as “product”.
It requires HR managers to change attitude, build up knowledge and skills, motivate and
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reward performances that contribute quality. All these come under the purview of HRM.
Empowering the HR and encouraging team spirits towards quality improvements are
vital subcomponents of TQM and establishing these practices is fundamental to effective
HRM. There is a strong linkage between TQM and HRM. These are the important issues
which have thrown lot of challenges for HR professionals to manage in today’s
organisations. As a satisfied customer is a mobile publicity, a satisfied employee is an
effective supplier of a satisfying service. Liberalisation has thrown India into a global
system from its traditionally insular and self-reliant stance. The new millennium has
brought in enormous challenges for HR managers. The agenda of the subject is also
undergoing a sea change. Newer HR practices are emerging to cope with the new work
place realities.

The first and foremost solution to HR issues lies in planning correctly the
required number of employees at each level of each category of skill, providing for
expansion, attrition and internal developmental needs. Secondly, the management must
identify the alternate sources from where human resource can be recruited, ranging from
trained and experienced people who could operate directly on the job, to new entrants
who require appropriate training and experience before handling the job. Thirdly, setting
up an appropriate cost effective recruitment, induction and training systems is also the
need of the hour. Training can improve staff faculty. It will also ensure that the people of
the right calibre are selected. However, to achieve best results, the training programmes
must be properly planned and structured. It is very essential that the persons responsible
for training should maintain a close contact with colleges, universities and other
institutions offering similar programmes. Fourthly, a descriptive management system
must be set up whereby all employees would be prepared to accept the basic norms of
discipline at work and must also create a collaborative climate for industrial peace so that
the customers are not in tensions. Fifthly, a team of HR professional be set up who have
the required professional and personal skills to ensure continuous monitoring and
improvement of the integrated development of human resource.

In addition to above mentioned strategy, the development o tourism sector also

depends upon the relations among employees themselves, relations between the
employees and management and relations among the management, employees and
tourist. Needless to say the healthier these relations are, the better will be the industry
look. In tourism business, it is very easy to see whether employees working for the
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tourist are competent and intelligent and up to the entire expectation of the tourist or not.
Although, the tourist may not utter a single word, a smart manager can learn from the
clues and mood of the tourist. Thus, the components of HRD in tourism must also deal
with the behaviour of the employees to give them the best i.e. by welcoming the guest
with a smile and speaking softly , gently and attentively without discrimination between
guest and helping their co workers in time of need to impress the guest. In addition to
behaviour focus should be laid on the appearance of employees also i.e. proper
orientation to keep looking good at the workplace. At the same time, to overcome the
phenomenon of employee turnover in tourism sector, employees must reasonably be
remunerated in terms of salary and perks and side by side there must be avenues for
promotion and personal development so that the employees have job satisfaction and
develop a sense of belongingness towards the organisation. It will inculcate loyalty and
motivate the employees for making the organisation successful.

Role of Government

The Government of India has also accorded top priority to the HRD to meet the
needs of fast growing hotel and tourism sector since the inception of economic planning
but real initiative to promote an active tourism was first taken by the government of India
in the year 1962 when four Regional Institute of Hotel Management, Catering
Technology and Applied Nutrition were established by Department of Food, Ministry of
Agriculture at Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. But to a certain extent their tourism
focus was submerged by priority in the field of food and nutrition. However, in 1982
when four Regional Institutes along with 12 Food Craft centres were transferred to the
Ministry of Tourism, there was an effort for development of HR to meet the expanding
needs of Hotel and Tourism Sector. There are at present 13 Institutes of Hotel
Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition and 14 Food Craft Institutes
imparting training in various crafts connected to the hotel and catering industry. The
Government also set up National Council for Hotel Management and Technology in
1983 to affiliate with it all the institutes of Hotel Management and Food Craft. In
addition, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) was established
in 1983 by the Ministry of Tourism at New Delhi primarily for developing HR required
for the tourism industry and provide a foundation for introduction of tourism education
in various universities and college.
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Concluding Remarks

In fine, enhanced international tourism with a similar rise in domestic demand

has placed excessive pressure to provide sufficient personnel educated and trained in
appropriate standard for range of tourism occupations. Looking at tourism sector in
totality with its far reaching consequences, it is highly desirable that it is managed and
controlled by the best professional minds not just by hotel experts and the likes, but those
who have the ability to take an overview of the entire tourism scenario and suggest ways
and means for its growth in consonance with aspirations and well being of mankind
.Training programmes to enhance and produce the necessary skills in the staff is
therefore, a challenge for all. To counter the challenges and also to have a fully
professional approach on the part of both destination and travel trade is of paramount
importance .A vital part of this professionalism is the ability to achieve properly planned
tourism based on a comprehensive understanding of demand evolution of development
mechanism. The role of HR Manager and Government of India needs further fine-tuning
for better strategic planning and development of HR in tourism sector. The strategies
suggested if implemented properly will keep the ship of tourism sector sailing in the
right direction even in the absence of captain of crew. Undoubtedly, customer
satisfaction through HRD in tourism will continue to be a significant factor in
determining how tourism develop in future because without quality improvement in HR
the potential for development of tourism would be extremely limited and the dream of
achieving global competitiveness in this sector will never come true.

Selected References

1. Malhotra,R.K., Human Resource Issues in Hotel Industry, Anmol Publications Pvt.

Ltd. New Delhi-1998.
2. Singh, Ratandeep, “Dynamics of Modern Tourism” Kanshika Publishers, New Delhi
– 1998.
3. Singh, Ratandeep, “Tourist India”, Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi – 1996
4. Mankidy, A, “HRM & Quality Orientations in Banks”, Management review, Oct. to
Dec. 1997 pp 19-28.
5. Shelly, Leela, “Tourism Development in India”, Arihant Publishers, Jaipur 1991.
6. Kumar, Maneet, “Tourism Today”, Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi 1992.
7. Sarkar, A.K., “India Tourism, Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi 1998.
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8. Seth, Pran, “Successful Tourism Management” Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New
Delhi 1997.
9. Kamra, K.K., “Tourism – Theory, Planning & Practice”, Indus Publishing Co. New
Delhi, 1997.
10. Balre, G.S., & A.S. Chawla, “Tourism Management – A Global Perspective” Deep
& Deep publications, New Delhi 1995.