NB Blogs

Infrastructure First. Ensure ease in Travel. Tourism will Follow! A Holistic Approach and Understanding have Brought New Growth Opportunities for Indian Tourism, opening new destinations with new found access. As this government ends its second five-year stint in power, much can be said of its push for tourism. Not perhaps as how the industry would like to see it; it embraces the larger picture of which the contours are beginning to emerge. From the very start, PM Modi identified tourism as one of the 5-Ts of his government, well before 2014. Indeed, whether one agrees or not, to each his own. Modi has been consistent with his belief that infrastructure first, ensure ease in travel, and tourism will follow. So, this story in now unfolding. In the last several years, the push has been towards creating infrastructure that provides comfort and speed, both, with safety and surety in travel. There is some that people may not agree with. Like the Bullet Train project, for instance. However,

The Countdown has Begun, and the Dice is Rolling. In the shifting sands, as the dust brings its haze, clarity of outcome remains fudgy, at best. The Dice is Rolling! What number will it settle upon? Is it really going to be 370? It could be more, or less! Only the Heavens know, or in a more practical sense, only the average voter knows. Which is not you and me! We, sitting in our urban cocoons, are not the average voter, that we all know. Any poll, any survey is not likely to tell us the end result. Just look back at 2019. It seemed to be going close but in the slog overs, all the remaining results came in favour of the ruling BJP, and the PM returned from Kedarnath from his prayers, more than answered. This time, with 2024 elections towering upon us, in the last few weeks, if all was understood to be known, some new factors have emerged and what impact will these have, is difficult to tell. The arrest of Kejriwal and freezing of Congress accounts First is the arrest of Kejriwal! Is he

These are excellent times for the hospitality industry. On a personal note, I can share modestly that I have witnessed the hospitality industry from up close from the mid-seventies to now, which is a good span of 50 years, right from the top, meaning even then and now. I have been an editor of a hotel magazine and I’ve had the privilege of knowing and interacting and engaging with the hospitality czars of that time, as even now. So, with that vantage point, I can share or say that hospitality has seldom seen such a good environment to grow. There is no looking behind. I see only an upside, no downside unless we plan our own demise. The market has boomed beyond recognition, the number of hospitality majors then were a handful, now almost a hundred of them. Brands were unknown except just a few, today each brand has its own 20 and more! Hotels are no more ‘oases’ in a land of poverty; today, they are mainstream as part of the social and economic fabric of the economy. The pipeline, howso