A Comparative study of Management of Resources in Heritage Hotels in Jaipur District
Mr. Praveen Kumar Sharma and Dr. Naveen Sharma*
School of Hotel Management, Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur- 302017, Rajasthan, India
praveen.sharma@mygyanvihar.com
Corresponding Author:*Dr. Naveen Sharma, Controller of Examination
Suresh GyanVihar University, Jaipur- 302017, Rajasthan, India
Abstract
Heritage hotels are old palaces and havelis that are converted into hotels. These hotels offer supreme luxury and provide individual attention and personalized services. Many royal families, especially in Rajasthan, have converted their palaces into a chain of hotels. Guests enjoy great ambience, huge rooms, royal food, and antique furniture along with modern facilities. The largest numbers of heritage hotels in the country are in Rajasthan. These types of hotel are also available in Jaipur district.
The aim of this paper is to determine the key factors influences Management of Resources in Heritage Hotels in Jaipur district. The variables used in the paper are related to the resources, the principal agents in the tourism supply chain, the governance of the destination, and the complementary characteristics that improve the competitiveness of the tourism destination, as well as the dimensions that determine security and their Management.
Keywords
Heritage hotel, Management, Resources, competitiveness, hospitality sector, Customer, Aviation, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, E-learning, technological advancement, Sustainable livelihoods etc.
Introduction
The Heritage hotel industry has to be prepared for this tremendous potential and have to take the necessary steps to meet and maintain this surge in demand. In light of the importance of the hotel industry to the economy, it becomes extremely important to study the drivers for success in this sector. Thus, a study of Management of Resources in the hotel industry becomes most relevant.
The boom in India’s tourism industry and the surge in tourist inflow to the country have percolated to other associated sectors like aviation, heritage tourism, and the hotel industry. The country’s hospitality sector has witnessed an increase in the occupancy ratios and average room rates in heritage hotels.
Currently, in India, there are about 90,000 hotel rooms available including Heritage hotels and with the new chains opening up, these numbers are escalating to more than 3 lac hotel rooms. In such a demanding scenario, the industry is keeping up pace with the modern technology in all aspects, but the fact that services are required to be provided has not changed, albeit technological advancements are embraced by the industry
No matter what the origin, purpose or size, guests expect to be treated as priorities and want to get the most out of their stay in the hotel. Anticipating the needs of each type of guest and making the necessary arrangements before hand will minimize complaints to a large extent. As in everything preventing complaints is better than dealing with them.
Tourists expect the convenience of a hotel pick up for their day tours while wanting to taste the local cuisines. Business travelers expect quick and efficient service, good internet speed and Wi-Fi among others.
The problem
The hotel industry is a customer bound service and for hotel industries to market themselves as brands it is very important to be customer centric and make sure that their customers get the best of the values. The hospitality manager to ensure that their customers remain continuously satisfied, they must ensure that customers feel welcomed, courteously and efficiently served in a clean, safe and secured environment with the best quality of products sold at a reasonable price. It is most needed in heritage hotel industry.
Lack of management of resources in the heritage hotels in Jaipur is area of concern. However, they are trying their level best to cope up with the national and international standard.
Tourists may not find it worthwhile to come all the way just for a tour. An innovative mechanism to streamline this development can be to market a heritage tourism destination as an alternative tourism destination. Hence, Management of resources associated with them is very much needed.
Review of literature
As Valdani 2009[1] points out an enterprise subsist only because they have customers to serve, thus making it clear that an organization exists only because of its customers. The key to attain sustainable benefit lies in delivering high quality service that eventually leads to satisfied customers.
Singh S., et.al. 2012[2] during their project work find out that Guest will choose where to stay and what to do on basis of the recommendations of their personal social network. Guest has reason not to trust all the hype and marketing when they have perfectly good friends and likeminded acquaintances that have been to a good hotel and done activities they would like to do. Not only are the distribution and commission margins costs are a lot lower, but the quality of referrals is a lot more credible and brings in exactly the kind of guests hotel is looking for.
According to Ahmad T., et al. 2012[3], based on the results of statistical analysis, which show the impact of Customer Relations Management on the level of client’s satisfaction, confidence and the retaining of the clients of the State Hotel of India, it is clear that there is no company in the world dropped from defects and imperfect. Without doubt, every company should scrutinize and upgrade its plans despite of its success to identify the new strategies, which appropriate to the developed management surroundings, which specified the needs and desires of old, or new consumers.
Naveed M. 2012[4]in his study pointed out that Customer Relationship Management is a powerful management tool that can be used to exploit sales potential and maximize the value of the customer to the hospitality industry. In the long term, Customer Relationship Management produces continuous scrutiny of the hospitality business with the customer, thereby increasing the value of the customer’s business. Hospitality sector’s greatest assets are their knowledge of their customers. They can use this asset and turn it into key competitive advantage by retaining those customers who represent the highest lifetime value and profitability. They can develop customer relationships across a broad spectrum of touch points such their franchise branches.
Bagri S.C., et al. 2012[5]in their study pointed out that an effort to increase guest satisfaction, hotels should make a concerted effort to increase employee satisfaction through policies and programs that these employees view as beneficial. Employee friendly policies and programs help to provide motivation. Motivation is considered to be a primary factor or variable that can act upon employees and inspire them to render effective service.
According to Banu S. 2012[6]the main objective for developing various tourism is to promote our rich cultural heritage and environment. This, in turn, enhances eco-tourism for sustainable livelihoods. The strategies involved for sustainability of state tourism projects should also include aggressive Marketing Strategies. There is demand of rural tourism in India as modern day tourist is keen to explore and experience the cultural heritage of the destination. Jaipur being a destination with rich cultural diversity always attracts tourists; particularly the foreign tourists who cherish the local beauty, diversity, heritage, culture, handicraft etc. Aggressive marketing is required to promote destination of state tourism based on its uniqueness.
Ambardar A. 2013[7] in his study highlighted that training is found to be one of the most significant human resource practices in any industry. The implementation of these practices in proper manner decides the overall performance of any organization. Trained employees are more likely to take pride in organizational achievements; believe in the goals; committed to their organizations and values of the organization and, therefore, exhibit higher levels of performance. Hence, the hotel organization has to endorse the training of its workforce to broaden their knowledge and skills, re-orient their culture and values, and encourage individuals to become idea champions.
Bhatia A. 2013[8]in his study suggested that the ministry of tourism can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of Indian tourism industry and also explore the favorable opportunities coming its way and minimize the effects of threats posed so that Indian tourism industry can be benefitted from it. As the world tourism organization highlights have also revealed in their study that there will be a shift in global trend of foreign tourist arrival from advanced economies to emerging economies and India being a part of the latter should therefore be ready enough to grab the fruits of this opportunities coming its way.
According to Jain D. 2013[9] every destination state is trying to attract more tourists by drawing the attention and growing the interest among the potential tourists through adopting effective marketing strategies. Promotion is an important element of marketing mix and plays a vital role in developing marketing strategies. Because of tourism is a field where the tourists want to know in advance about the attractions and facilities of the destination. Marketers need to provide such necessary information to the prospective tourists through different promotional measures and thus, try to motivate and attract them to the sponsor’s destination.
According to Kalaskar P. 2013[10], in India the hotels are classified on the basis of general features and facilities offered, hence they are classified as five star deluxe, five star, four star, three star, two star, one star and heritage hotels. These are the classification given by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Every five years these ratings are put under review. The 5 star hotels are included in the premium and luxury segment, 3 and 4 star hotels are included in the mid-market segment, 1 and 2 star hotels are included in the Budget hotels.
Mathai R. 2014[11] in his study found that Indian hotel industry is a boom with international and Indian owned hotel withdomestic and foreign tourists in the county. Knowledgeable and skilled employees are proved to be an asset in hospitality industry. In order to enhance their competitiveness and skills, training and development of employees are essential. E-learning can be used by the management for rapid delivery of information, more reliable and better learning opportunities for employees.
Future scope
This study will also benefit the future researchers in the heritage hospitality industry. The researcher can base his/her study on this research design and study each variable in depth covering larger area. Further, the researcher can use this study as a guideline for them to develop the required heritage policies that can be used by the management of the heritage hotels in the state for customers.
This study can also be taken as a comparative study between the challenges faced and its depth in state context with the Indian context. There has been limited study carried out in heritage hospitality sector on the management of customer in Jaipur as well as in India.
Conclusion
This research paper was identified the need for research that could improve the understanding of heritage tourism and the factors influences the pricing strategies in the hotel industry. These researches have highlighted some important managerial implications and find out that heritage matters.
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