Rajesh Rawat, Joint Director EPCH gave a special presentation on the usage of handicrafts to give a unique identity to Indian Hotels at the BW Hotelier Indian
Hospitality Summit & Awards, 2017 at The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel.
Supporting Make in India and using handicraft could be a major development in this area as it would largely appeal to the tourists. Handicraft exporters could largely add value to the Indian Hospitality industry and could be a great synergy between the two industry.
Handicrafts, tourism, and culture are promoted together. Approximately 10 million foreign tourist visit the country every year growing at a rate of 4.5% generating foreign exchange revenue of 20. 17 billion growing at 9.6% per annum.
Tourists visiting India take a piece of Indian Culture, tradition and craft as a memory. A large number of craft emporiums, souvenir shops, etc, selling handicraft.
"India has several world class domestic hotel chains and several international chains operating in India, owing to the increase in tourist influx in the country the demand of hotel rooms is constantly increasing which could be channelized in the right way and used for the promotion of handicraft industry," he further added.
A panel discussion followed this presentation , where prominent faces from the industry discussed the alliance of handicrafts and hotel industry.
Bobby Mukherjee, (Bobby Mukherjee Associates), Vaishali Sinha (General Secretary IPHA and Executive House Keeper, Meluha the Fern), Sareena Kochar, (Vice President House Keeping, The Park New Delhi)were a part of the panel.
"We are always trying to promote Indian handicrafts and culture. We distribute hand made lanters to our guests", she was quoted saying.
Bobby Mukherjee stressed on that fact that Hotel industry is different for different consumers, there are different ways to cater to different audiences.
"In a big city hotel where we have a business traveller , he will not appreciate a local artesian work, where as if we have that demonstrated in our regional hotels, it will capture a larger audience", he concluded.
