Day two at the BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Awards And Summit saw one of the most important issues the F&B industry is facing today. Understanding the millennials and their rising expectations and fickle loyalties.
The post-lunch panel discussion saw few of the most prominent faces in the hospitality industry trying to decode what the millennials want, and how the F&B industry in today's time can step up its game.
Chef YB Mathur (Executive Director, Institute of Culinary Economics), Zorawar Kalra(Founder and MD Massive Restaurants), Kunal Kapoor (Chef), Prashant Gaurav Gupta, (Hotel Manager, ITC Maurya) were part of the panel.
Technology today has shrunk the world, and experiences have become global. The millennials are educated, well read, experienced and very well-travelled. The expectations they have from the restaurants they visit thus become high. Globally they are on the same tangent. They are sure of what they want. If restaurants fail in delivery, the fickle customer is in no dearth of choice.
The hotel industry in India has a great contribution in the economy. It employs the second largest number of people after agriculture. "The generation today is born in a time of plenty, they have high standards and we have to keep ours higher to cater to them. With the changing times, we are selling nostalgia in a modern way," Zorawar opined.
"The F&B industry is changing and the millennials are the reason for its change. With many new and innovative cafes coming up, and capturing the audience 5 star hotels are doing their best to keep up," said Prashant.
Kunal Kapoor stressed on the fact that dine out as an experience is changing every day, what was "Class" and "Hep" 3 years ago is not the same today.
"People want change, today is not the time for only dining but experiential dining the next big thing in the industry is breakfast outlets. ,"he further added.
Chefs today must be trained properly for the new market of F&B industry, from services to business to the customers point of view. Today the idea of dine out is not only restricted to occasion. People are eating out more often, hanging out at cafes with friends has become popular. Thus, the restaurants and cafes must be prepared for this sort of experience.
"The right experiences of the millennials are the most important for us to function and we are working in that direction, thus I feel F&B industry is heading the right way," Mathur concluded.
