Ensuring the Lawful Use of Digital Signatures for Hospitality in India

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Hospitality in India

[Music] introduction in this modern era hotels have become an important part of not just tourism but also for the coroporate sector weddings and events Etc however what does this industry look like while hotels look like opulent buildings are the financially strong here at India business insights we will answer all your queries regarding the hotel industry and help you understand it better before that we urge you to like and share this video please do not forget to subscribe and hit the notification Bell for more videos like this history the origin of the hotel industry in India cannot be traced to a definitive point of time there is evidence of people traveling often predominantly for pilgrimage and trade the concept of charam that is visiting religious places located in four corners of India among the Hindu Community is an important indicator of significance ed to Pilgrimage by their ancestors the country stands tted while many such shrines ancient texts and literature as also Hindu mythology have many references to travel and the provision of accommodation facilities for traveling pilgrims and Traders by the authorities of those days ancient and Medieval Era the beginning of the hospitality sector in India stands rooted in the Hindu philosophy of atiti Deo bhava implying that a guest is to be ed the status of God while it is not clear when Hospitality emerged as a commercial activity in Ancient India there is evidence of accommodation facilities for travelers and guests the lodging houses during those times were known as dham Shala dham shalas the resting places for pilgrims are believed to have the have their origins in Village choel which served as a meeting ground for the villagers to plan and discuss various social welfare and development measures these became the places of lodging as Travelers started putting up camps there due to safety reasons slowly permanent structures came up in place of these camps record of many foreign visitors and philosophers who came to India speak highly of the hospitality facilities famous Chinese Scholars Fen and hayin song who came during the Reigns of Chandra gupt vikramaditya and harsharan respectively have mentioned the existence of shelters for travelers in the Medieval Era between the 11th and 13th centuries many SAR and musafir Kanas were built primarily as resting places largely used by the Messengers of the PO postal system established by The Sultans of the slave and mumluk Dynasty the m continued to practice and build many such saris to accommodate Travelers colonial era to modern era the organized existence of Hotel industry in India started taking shape during the British colonial period with the Advent of Europeans in the 17th century the early hotels were mostly operated by people of foreign origin to cater to the needs of the European colonizers and later officials of the during the British rule western style luxurious H start Ed coming up in important cities like Kolkata and Bombay among the first such properties were taverns like Portuguese George puses and ra raette Court which opened in Bombay between 1837 and 1840 the real development and growth of organized hotels started in Kolkata the capital city of the British Raj during the 19th century ing to records an English man by the name of John Spence established Spence's Hotel in wesle Palace in 1830 which was one of the first hotels in Kolkata as well as in Asia the hotel was introduced to cater to the growing number of visitors coming to Kolkata from Britain and other parts of Europe and India as the government encroached on Office Buildings around the area the Spencers Hotel was shifted from its original location at the Crossing of Esplanade R West and government Place West to wellis Place Another Not notable Hotel of the time was the Great Eastern hotel which was established in 1840 or 1841 at a time when Kolkata as the seat of the East India Company was the most important city in India referred to as the Jewel of the east in its Heyday Great Eastern Hotel hosted several notable persons visiting the city theth hotels palaces and Resorts took over the SEL in 2005 and until its closure for Restoration in 2005 the hotel was the longest continuously operating hotel in Asia the hotel remained closed for a number of years for extensive Renovations and reopened as the lth Great Eastern hotel in 2013 meanwhile Bombay also sees some of the notable hotels in the city in the 19th century such as the Hope Hall family hotel in mazag in 1837 and Victoria Hotel in Bombay in 1840 the first Indian style hotels were sard GHA which opened in 1900 and madav vasham in 1908 the two World Wars bought a fresh lot of hotels in Mumbai an important port city of the times Delhi expanded rapidly from the late 19th century onwards and soon emerged as the commercial capital of the north the maiden's Metropolitan Hotel on seven lines in in 1894 was jointly run by two Englishmen the maiden Brothers on 12th December 1911 King Emperor George F declared New Delhi as the new capital of British India as the capital grew new hotels like the Imperial and janpath in 1936 the fanesca on manik Road in 1942 the Cales on orang Z Road in 1950 came up however it was truly the beginning of the 20th century that brought in new and proud developments of the Indian hospitality industry as The Visionaries of Indian origin started investing in hotels business it was pioneered by Jamshed G naranji Tata who Incorporated Indian hotels Company Limited known as the Taj hotels Resorts and palaces to open its Flagship property the Taj Mahal Palace in Bombay in 1903 then the ooy group of hotels was founded by Raj Raj bahadur moans Singh oboy who took over the Grand Hotel known as The oberoy Grand in Kolkata on lease and was able to buy the property outright in 1943 and established the obra hotels private Limited in 1946 and later on the East India hotels Limited E L known as the overo hotels and resorts in Kolkata in 1956 however during the 1970s and 1980s the Indian traveler did not have a decent room to stay in the only hotels were either poy places with poor hygiene or grand five star run by the likes of the Taj or the ooy which were unaffordable so there was nowhere decent and affordable for the large middle class of this country as a result most Travelers opted to stay with families and friends or in the state run tourist homes post Independence there were big leaps in the hotel trade in the country the oo group of hotels and the Taj group took over several British properties maintained high standards of services and qualities and expanded their business overseas the later decades saw corporates like the ITC also join the hotel industry with properties under ITC welcome group we have covered the story of opening of the Taj Mumbai the oboy Grant and the ITC group in the videos about Indian hotels Company Limited the overo group and the ITC group you can check them out using the links in the description box below the Indian economy opened up in 1991 leading to high economic growth in the country all through to the 1990s and the no eyes breaking out of the shackles of socialism India introduced policies that were market and services oriented and this led to a boom of seeing good midmarket hotels that offered some of the Thrills of the five stars the Indian hotels industry has become International with the flagship brands of the Taj and oo group of hotels significant contributions from numerous other Standalone and group of hotels have supported the IND industry and grown even bigger and richer among them some have created their own niche market in India like the ITC hotels the Leela palaces hotels and resorts ICL e and the lituri hospitality group The Taj and oberoy are iconic Global Brands but their names no longer command the premium and undying loyalty they once did instead post 2000 each of these players has had had to work hard to stay relevant in a world where the customer has plenty of choices and is fickle not only Indian Brands many International Hospitality organizations have invested in India too considering its growing Market potential and increasing buying capacity over the last few decades various well-known international hotel chains have come to India these include hayat hotels and resorts InterContinental Hotels and Resorts marot inter ational Hilton Hotels Best Western International Etc they came they saw they failed to conquer that was in the 1960s and then again in 1970s and 1980s but if anything International chains have been persistent in their attempts to occupy the Indian market and eventually most of them managed to crack the code the entry of international change has been a really important turning point for the Indian Hospitality because while the complexity of the Indian market may have challenged them initially once they got their bearings right they brought in some important ingredients discipline efficiency transparency and strong processes to the sector today there are five and a half star hotels owned leased managed franchised or distributed many hotels are actually not owned by Leed for 99 years or less when they enter into these Lees people assume the the lease will be extended for eternity but that's not the case as seen with the Taj Mahal Hotel on maning Road in New Delhi entrepreneurs with no background in Hospitality have jumped into the frey as they think there is no cap that the veteran players have not addressed these include rates Agarwal of oo gorov Jen of Amud Aditi balir of V Resorts and Prashant arur of intell State this new breed of Hotel years has the had spa and the confidence to venture into the into the turf and the good news is that they have backing from venture capital and private Equity players these Hotel professionals started building their own Brands and management companies like serova hotels a hotel management company which has grown into the leading Hotel company in the country with five Brands 60 hotels and more than 5,000 room rooms under his management multiple hoteliers started setting up chains in three fourstar hotels like the Balaji group in Bangalore Sinclair's Leisure hotels and Mayfair Hotel groups this gave a new direction to the industry as before the main focus of hotel chains was to establish luxurious five star and Deluxe hotels this Fay into three or four star hotels opened doors for hoteliers to expand the customers bace online travel agents such as make my trip clear trip yatra and booking.com that blazed into the digital landscape completely disrupted the hotel industry they changed the way people chose hotels and booked and created a Level Playing Field for unknown hotels that had no distribution muscle thanks to them a small single Hotel company now can get 100% occupancy while hotel chains with deep distribution networks May struggle to fill up room though concentrated in few Metro cities the hotel industry of India has had a highly organized upscale segment over the years as per reports in 2018 alone the the total number of rooms in top 11 cities was estimated at around 92536 year- on-year average occupancy rate has also been increasing with the increasing number of Travelers domestic and international Boo as of April 2020 2 the country has 1929 approved hotels three star hotels 564 hotels form the greatest part of these hotels at followed by BNB establishments 459 fourstar hotels 423 five star hotels 185 and five star Delux hotels 149 then came the pandemic which had an unprecedented impact on the sector incurring a total revenue loss of approximately INR 90,000 crores while the losses have been grave during the prolonged lockdown period the hospitality sector is slowly witnessing an uneven recovery with the domestic Leisure Travelers being the key driver behind this the hotel industry is highly cyclical let us look at different phases of this industry that went through in the last 25 years or so Financial year 96 202 saw a cyclical slowdown which was partly due to the Asian currency crisis and partly due to other factors the Asian financial crisis also called the ancient contagion was a sequence of currency devaluation and other events that began in July 1997 and spread across Asia the crisis started in Thailand when the government ended the local currencies def facto Peg to the US Dollars just weeks after Thailand stopped defending its currency Malaysia the Philippines and Indonesia were also compelled to let their currencies fall as speculative Market pressure built by October the crisis spread to South Korea where a balance of payment crisis brought the government to the brink of default then in financial year 0208 figures improved and ref bar was noted to be at its best the Indian hospitality industry witnessed a boom led by strong domestic travel tense and a positive economic an investment environment this was led by a series of ambitious economic reforms aimed at deregulating the country which led to a strong inflow of foreign investment betting on skilled managerial and Technical Manpower with a highly educated and huge middle class population the phase saw rapid economic growth which fueled the domestic travel industry both tourism and corporate travels which was contributing a minuscule 2% of GDP in finan year 04 ingly the industry witnessed a structural shift and saw massive investment in the hotel sector with greater focus on building the midscale segment to fulfill the requirement of the growing middle class segment however in the next phase Financial year 08 to13 the recession of 2008 significantly impacted the segment which was impacted by the double whammy of a fall in demand for hotel rooms and a strong Supply addition in the segment for a prolonged period between Financial year 06 and financial year 16 Hotel years in India added capacity at a c cagr of over 10% outpacing demand this impacted the occupancy and AR across the industry thus impacting R power of the companies financial year 13 to 17 saw the beginning of a brighter phase where the sector witnessed some Revival after 24 14 with moderate demand growth however the relief was shortlived as by the end of financial year 17 to 20 pandemic HD the road to recovery the sector was significantly impacted during the pandemic eroding profits across the segments Financial year 20 to 22 that is the lockdown phase forced hoteliers to undertake certain permanent or temporary measures to bring down their overhead expenses which became necessary for its survival while the sector also witnessed shutting down and exit of many unorganized and small players the Branded entities with lean balance sheets managed to survive this down cycle what to expect in financial year 22 to 28 the cost cutting efforts have begun to pay pay off well during the post-pandemic era which is seeing robust demand Revival and limited room Supply in the market the current phase seems to be very similar to the 2004 to 2008 era which saw a strong uptrend in hotel industry and which is expected to last for another 3 4 years the Up Cycle could normalize with modernization in demand and huge supply addition hitting the market post 2026 to 27 conclusion the Indian Hotel industry has gradually grown up over the years to attain its present stage which has been possible by aggregate efforts of industrialists Visionaries industry experts and favorable government policies and support today traditional Indian hospitality and many Indian Hotel brands are well known and appreciated around the globe though the industry has to walk miles before it reaches the peak of its potential and desired level of maturity at par with the developed countries of the world moreover as uncertainities in international travels still persists many chains of hotels are seeking to bring the experience of luxury overseas hotel stay in the country Additionally the trend of offering station and work from hotel has also been on the rise and this is something hotels can tap into please come back for the next part where we look at various hotel chains for the performance metrics their brands and properties