Chapter - 8

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS,
CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary of Findings

Summary of Conclusions

Suggestions

Recommendations
 Chapter 8

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS,

SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Findings :

From the statistical analysis and interpretation made in the previous

chapter it is inferred that majority of the respondents agree with the opinion
that top management needs to assess regularly the surplus and shortage of
human resources considering the needs of the ITDC for present and future
requirements. Employees are not satisfied with the efforts made by the
management to determine levels of future recruitment and selection needs.

The majority of the respondents do not have the same opinion over
the issue of determination of future training and management development
of ITDC. It is notable that a majority of the respondents are uncertain over
the issues and thus they are not satisfied with the provisions of controlling
of wage and salary costs.

The majority of the respondents do not agree with the provisions

related to ensuring optimum utilization of human resources employed
considering the ITDC requirements.

Further, majority of the respondents are uncertain regarding

provision of a basis for future management development programmes. Thus,
they are not satisfied with this issue.

The analysis of the statistical tools also leads to the conclusion that
ITDC is lacking in laying emphasis on making efforts to meet the needs of
expansion and diversification programmes.
 202

The majority of the respondents disagree with the full development

of human resource information system of ITDC.

As far as respondents' attitude towards slow growth of productivity

in ITDC is concerned, they do agree with the statement.

It can also be concluded that unplanned manpower development

leads to poor productivity.

The majority of the employees are disagree over the issue that poor
planning leads to unencouraging profitability.

Respondents' opinion regarding human resource planning in Air

Sahara and Jet Airways have been presented and analysed and it is found
that majority of the employees agree with the question of the questionnaire
that the human resource planning is must for every dynamic tourism
organization. They feel that top management do not consider it seriously.

Most of the employees feel that there is need to re-structure the

organizations of Air Sahara and Jet Airways and train, plan, and develop
them according to its pre-determined objectives. They feel that their
potentialities are not fully utilized for enhancing productivity of both
organizations. While HRP has been helping Air Sahara and Jet Airways, the
overall performance as regards higher productivity has not been so
encouraging. The main reason is the conflict between employees and the
management which leads to strike and unrest among them.

Further, any expenditure exercise made in planning and

development of manpower increases the cost of manpower and add less to
profitability.
 203

The airline industry is classified into six segments: Major, flag-

carriers, cargo airlines, independents, low cost carriers (LCCs), regional,
and leisure.

The majors are airlines which have annual revenues in excess of $2

billion; flag-carriers are the national airlines; regionals are the niche airlines
limited to certain geographical parts; LCCs are the new breed airlines
operating point to point with lower costs; and leisure are the charter
operators.

An analysis of the top 150 airlines reveals that the majors have
more than two-thirds share of the airline business. Their average operating
margin is negative 3.9 per cent in 2003, while that of the LCCs is much
better at 6.9 per cent. The majors grew in 2003 by only 4.4 per cent while
the LCCs expanded by 28 per cent. Thus, the LCCs have grown profitably in
2003, showing way for the majors.

The cost side of the airline business has deteriorated considerably,

as carriers soak up increased ATF (airline turbine fuel) costs which are
indexed to prices of crude oil. In 2004, as crude oil went up from $35 to $55
a barrel, few airlines had hedged against such price rise. As per International
Air Transport Association (lATA) forecast, the airline industry losses in
2004 would be $4 billion, in spite of improved traffic, mainly due to rise in
ATF costs.

Private Airlines in Asia Financially Better :

Privately owned Asian airlines, such as Cathay Pacific and

Singapore Airlines, always had good financial conditions due to stronger
growth but the financials of US airlines are extremely poor.
 204

Three of the leading airlines of the US among the Big Six - US

Airways, United Airlines and Delta - recently filed for bankruptcy
protection; most others with notable exception of Southwest, clearly
demonstrate the difficulty faced by US carriers as they fight to cope with the
changed operational and financial environment. The US majors can survive
only if they successfully cut costs to meet long-term reduced revenues, and
reduce debts by bringing in fresh capital.

Airlines in India not consistently profitable till 2003

The Government-owned Air India and Indian Airlines have been

modest in their losses since the last five years. As per published financial
results, Air India, India's international airline, 51*' in 2003 in global
rankings, in terms of revenue, had a negative operating margin on 2.6 per
cent resulting in a loss of $ 33.3 million against a loss of $40.3 million in
2002.

Indian Airlines, ranked 73'' ^ in 2003, with revenues $851 million,

reported net losses of Rs. 196.5 crore in 2003, 246.75 crore in 2002, and
159.17 crore in 2001, as per the DGCA.

India's largest private airline, Jet Airways, globally ranked 94^*^ with
revenues of $595 million, was reported to have made a net loss of Rs. 244.5
crore, as per DGCA reports, in 2002-03, loss of Rs. 13.4 crore in 2001-02,
and a profit of Rs. 12.4 crore in 2001, as per the DGCA, Air Sahara had a
net loss of Rs. 37.75 crore in 2002-03, loss of Rs. 159.9 crore in 2001-02,
and loss of Rs. 34.9 crore in 2000-01.
 205

The boom in international arrivals, better financial performance of

India Inc, and an increase in the incomes of IT professionals all contributed
to a surge in domestic travel in 2004. Jet Airways recorded a net profit of
Rs. 259 crore for the nine months period ended on December 31, 2004, as
per company sources. Air Sahara and Indian Airlines are also expected to
turn in better performances this year. As the competition in India is so far
limited, the fares in domestic sectors are considerably higher than
international fares.

Airline and aviation supply chain :

The aviation supply chain consists of airlines, airports, airline

equipment manufacturers, airline IT suppliers (like GDS), travel agents and
the traveller.

According to an analysis of top 150 airlines' profitability with that

of airports, aircraft manufacturers, and IT suppliers, airlines have the most
adverse profitability margins.

The new Director-General of lATA, has been complaining against

monopoly airline suppliers such as air traffic controllers, airports, and GDS,
IT vendors, aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus, who benefit
at the cost of airlines.

The main reasons why airlines are rarely profitable are:

• Highly capital intensive (with high fixed costs on aircraft, their

maintenance, IT infrastructure, crew training, etc.) as well as labour
intensive.
 206

• Governments usually like to retain partial control of the airlines and

hesitate in liberalizing ownership.

Low profitability - deflationary revenues and inflationary costs.

Cyclical nature with longer period of recession and shorter recovery.

• Strong influence of external environment whether economic, political

or environment.

• Very few professionally managed.

• Complex pricing structures, restrictive conditions.

• Steep fall in demand for business travel, especially post 9/11.

• Reducing pricing power due to competition from LCCs.

• Escalating fuel prices, and

• Additional security and insurance charges after 9/11.

In the 1990s, liberalization of Indian skies saw a plethora of private

airlines, such as Jet Airways, Damania Airways, East West Airlines, NEPC,
UB Air and Archana Air taking to the skies.

However, most of these private airlines, with the exception of Jet

Airways, have now ceased to exist. Varios factors account for the
disappearance from scene of these airlines. It may be noted that private
airlines were formed before the appropriate time or they might have to pay
the price for not understanding the low profitability, high capital cost
implicit in the airline business.

Now, with income levels rising in urban India, private airlines have
better prospects. Close on the heels of the success of Air Deccan, India's
 207

first LCC, many private airlines such as Kingfisher airlines, rechristened

from B Air; Royal Air, rechristened from ModiLuft; and Eastwest airlines
are readying to take off again, promising to bring down air fares and
challenging the oligopoly of Indian Airlines and jet Airways. Moreover,
with liberalization of bilaterals by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the
domestic private airlines such as Jet Airways and Air Sahara can now
explore new horizons in the UK, Singapore, hitherto a preserve of Air India
and Indian Airlines; with this development, the fortunes of the domestic
airlines seem to be viewed in more favourable terms.

The industry's low profitability and its capital and intensivity, mean
that airlines will struggle to earn profits, as forces of competition are
unleashed.

Recently quite a few low-cost airlines in Europe such as Air Polonia

(Polish), Volare (Italian), V-Bird (Dutch), Jet Magic (Irish) and Now and
Duo (British) have gone bankrupt unable to sustain the cyclical pressures of
the industry.

While the Indian air traveller looks forward to the launch of more airlines
leading to more competition, lowering of airfares, the newly established
airlines are advised to stay on course, by avoiding the air pockets of the airline
business.'

The trend of travel to India is booming and is undoubtedly expected to

grow continually in the coming years. However, some undermining factors
become apparent, particularly during peak periods, which might have a
negative effect and thus restrict further development of this trend.

'. Pandit, Pankaj Narayan "Airlines are rarely profitable", Business Line, New Delhi, Feb.
18,2005.
 208

• The network of Jet Airways services is often not sufficient to

accommodate the demand on the most frequented tourist routes.

The actual frequency of flights to some important destinations, the

seat capacity offered and the operational standards have not always
kept pace with the growth rate of air traffic.

• There is a shortage of air conditioned limousines and buses.

The equipments being used at present often does not meet the
international standards.

The rates and fares charged by Jet Airways services are substantially
high. In India, the rates charged by airlines are roughly ten times the
rates charged by railway from second class passengers. It is therefore,
a transport of rich and well-to-do tourist. It can not become a mass
tourism. But there is need for a change towards the low cost Airline
to came into existence.

• Inclement weather caused by storms, rains or fog restricts the

transport flow. The bad weather is more harmful to aircraft journey.
Therefore Air transport is a good weather friend and can not provide
service in the rough weather. This results in unreliability and
uncertainty of flight timings.

'I*
•> Air transport miserably suffers from higher frequency and greater
intensity of accidents. Most of the accident are fatal and survivors are
rare. The accidents may be due to miscalculations on the part of pilot,
failure of the machine fire crash against some high peak or buildings
 209

or inadequate training of the pilots. This restricts the use and

operations.

• The ground service transporters like bus drivers tax drivers etc.
charge heavily from the tourist, specially from an international
tourist. This kind of practices hampers the image of country in the
world tourism market.

• There are not many highways and planned roads to facilitate the
transport. This is mainly due to inadequate financial assistance.

• In India the area of operations of air transport is very limited. The

flights are few and infrequent and for a few places only. In India,
airports are very few and are concentrated in big cities only.

In the context of domestic business tourism, India largely depends

upon Indian Airlines. But the quality of services of Indian Airlines are not
quite satisfactory. Hence, people have started moving towards the private
domestic carriers.

It is believed that Ministry of Civil Aviation has failed in

convincing the Finance Ministry for the very needed development of
infrastructure. It is imperative on the part of the Department of Civil
Aviation to fight all the way to acquire the resources required for integrated
infrastructure development. Without this it would be impossible to gain for
the growth and development of this very potential and strategic Indian
Airlines and Air India Ltd.

Finally the researcher concludes that factors framed affect the

overall improvement of the functioning of Air Sahara and Jet Airways.
 210

Conclusion :

Tourism is a human experience, a social experience, a geographical

phenomenon, a resource value, and a business industry. It is a major social
phenomenon of the modern society with enormous economic consequences.
Its importance as an instrument for economic development and employment
generation, particularly in remote and backward areas, has now been well
recognized the world over. The industry today is globally recognized as a
major economic contributor and employment generator. The investment
flows into this field are constantly on the increase.

The developing countries must first develop the human resources in

order to develop a tourism institutional structure in which technological
innovation can occur on a large scale. Economic development can succeed
only when the environment as a whole is conducive to change and
innovation at all levels and on all fronts. This will require educated masses,
literate and national masses.

The strategies supported to achieve the goal of human resources

development in tourism industiy include more open government, more
transparent and accountable public administration and development of
energetic entrepreneurship in developing countries and further liberalization
of markets and goods, capital, technology and tourism products. This would
require joint action programmes. A new vision for global co-operation for
the next century is needed.

It has become imperative that tourism sector should concentrate on

HRP system for grooming. HR in such a manner so as to flourish and
achieve international competitiveness in tourism.
 211

The tourism industry is faced with various challenges in the field of

human resources. One of the crucial issues in this regard is the quality of
manpower. The industry is vitally faced with the demand for qualified
quality personnel.

The Government of India has shown some interest, though

obviously not enough, in the promotion of tourism sector over the years, the
Government has realized the importance of the skilled manpower in the field
at different level to plan, train and develop human resources.

There is still a strong potential for further growth rate in tourism

to India and better transport services could play a dominant role in the
overall development of tourism in India. It is observed that increases in
tourism in the future would much depend on the successful handling of the
areas, like by providing proper facilitation in travel formalities. The
infrastructure problems should also be solved with an emphasis on
transportation because there is an urgent need for attention to roads not only
for national highways but also the rural and urban roads all over the country.
Technological upgradation of vehicles is also necessary so that there inbuilt
safety, driving comfort, fuel efficiency, reduced maintenance costs and
greater reliability. Besides upgrading the technology human resource
development should also be done for ensuring better driving and
maintenances skills.

Human resource planning is a strategy for the acquisition,

utilization, improvement and pressure on manpower resources. Manpower
planning is the system which ensures availability of new personnel in terms
of quality and quantity as and when they are required. Thus, human resource
 212

planning refers to establishing job specifications or the qualitative

requirement of jobs and determining the number of people required, as per
goals and objectives.

Today, human resource planning is considered as the way

management comes to grasp the ill-defined and tough-to-solve human
resource problems facing an organization. The tools used in the process as
well as the importance of the process depends on the problems being
confronted by the management. The nature of the problems relates to broad
external changes and issues inherent in corporate strategies and plans. The
key to effective human resource planning in the analysis of the factors
representing change - change that potentially affects survival, growth,
efficiency and effectiveness, as well as excellence, productivity and
profitability of business.

Recruitment and selection is an important function of Human

Resource Planning in the tourism industry. Slightest mistake will lead to
ruin the whole tourism industry. The role of HR manager is very crucial in
selecting and recruiting the right kind of people who can be an asset for the
tourism sector. Instead of following a blind elimination process, focuss
should be on selecting people based on the skills and competencies required
for the job.

The training and development plans are aimed at developing talents

to perform effectively in the present and future higher levels on more
challenging work situations. The T&D activities are the techniques of
encashing on the human capital whose potential is much more than any
other resources in the organization. The rapid increase in the size of the
 213

organization and the technological advancement have resulted in delegating

the authorities and responsibilities to the supervisors. This has added new
dimensions to the role profile of a supervisor.

The latest approach of supervisory development takes into account

his foresight, sympathetic approach, ability to suggest improvements in
methods, develop understanding between management and workforce, strive
for improvement, and so forth. He has to organize the work and manage the
operations. The success of the department depends upon the supervisor. It
calls for high standards of general ability, degree of intelligence, maturity of
character and a temperament to control the shopfloor.

The success of an organization depends on its ability to affect

continuous improvement and provide quality products and services to its
customer. This will require every personnel in the organization to possess
the requisite knowledge, skill and attitude. For the purpose of determining
training requirements, two levels of supervision could be identified. Each
level of supervision should have a curriculum that addresses competencies
required at that level.

The role of training and development programmes is most essential

as it helps not only in 'managing others', but in managing self and it
inculcates among participants a feeling to aspire for higher and higher
excellence and effectiveness and thereby increased productivity.

Suggestions :

For a prosperous society, it is vitally important that productivity

graph moves upward. No doubt, technological sophistication and industrial
 214

innovation result in higher productivity but the magnitude of success is

influenced by efforts taken in the field of educational innovations.
Professionalism without ethical excellence carries no meaning. Hence, an
organization requires to develop technological expertise along with ethics
and work attitude. This naturally diverts our attention on initiating
qualitative improvements in the education and training facilities so that
professional and inter-personal potentialities are developed.

An effective management recognizes that planning, training and

development is an ongoing and continuous process, not a 'one-shot' activity.
New problems, new procedures and equipments, new knowledge and new
jobs are constantly creating the need for training and development. The
justification for the investment of time, money, or any other resources in
training and development activities is that it can contribute to the
productivity and profitability of the enterprise. Training activities, properly
planned, conducted and evaluated, help to raise the productivity of the
tourism industry through the more effective use of human resources.

In order to manage change for productivity, organization members

need to understand their own organisation's culture, and to see their own
organization as a potentially flexible and dynamic system. Only then a
vision of the future for productivity improvement can be developed and an
appreciation of the route need to take to achieve that vision. In this climate
of rapid change, it has become imperative for executives and managers to
rethink their conventional approaches. The integrated committed culture
comprising efficiency, flexibility and commitment may solve some of the
 215

issues which has resulted from the new challenges posed of new business
environment.

Although the future of tourism transport will depend on the extent

and pace of development of technology, yet it can be safely said that in the
years to come it will play greater role and offer much greater services to
tourism specially the air transport.

The role of Air Sahara and Jet Airways in the promotion of

tourism in India can not be ignored but there is a need to bring some
innovative changes in the management strategies for making the efforts
meaningful. Air Sahara and Jet Airways play a very supportive role for
tourism industry.

Further, to increase the tourist flow the Government has to pay

attention to the air transport services like by improving the quality of
services which its national carrier and international carrier provides to the
tourist. It has to bring innovative changes in the marketing strategies for
competing with competitors of this field. The Jet airways has to introduce
tourism oriented schemes for attracting foreign tourist, for example, budget
tours in off seasons, incentive tours etc. Besides this, it has to provide
enough funds for the tourism publicity division and establish tourism cell in
the big cities, appointing the full time tourism director in management body
so that he could give suggestion how to improve the tourist attracting
tactics.

If Jet Airways wants to have a stand in the market against its

competitors then the carrier has to have better and effective publicity of its
promotional schemes and better marketing strategies. To improve its market
 216

reputation it has to introduce extraordinary facilities and comfort on the

flights on very reasonable fares. Efforts should be made to introduce new
destinations which have the capacity to generate tourist traffic.

Air Sahara and Jet Airways play a very important role in tourism,
both at the domestic and international level. It is abundantly clear that air
transport plays a dominant role in the inter-regional movement of tourists,
which normally entails travel over long distances and frequently over-water
barriers as between, for example, North America and Europe. Again, air
transport is also of growing importance in intra- regional travel where
substantial distances are involved and geographical obstacles impede easy
movement. The rate of growth of international air traffic has persisted at
around 15 per cent a year, and this increased use of air transport by tourist is
the result of a number of factors : people have become air travel-minded,
travel is immeasurably quicker and fares have generally decreased. The most
decisive development, however, has been the development of inclusive tours
in which travellers are carries on charter flights at rates substantially below
those of normal scheduled services.

Role of transport in the context of Indian tourism industry is

indispensable and one could say that the rail transport, road transport, water
transport and air transport have made a considerable contribution in
promoting the tourism in the country specially the air transport has played a
dominant role in bringing more and more international tourist to the country
and facilitating the domestic tourist who have money but no time to spend
on unnecessary, time consuming modes of transport.
 217

India is too far away from the main tourist generating centres of the
world both in the west like US and Europe and in the east Japan and Korea.
Thus, making it quite a bit expensive for most down market tourists from
these centres wanting to get here, while the rich travellers of the Indian
subcontinent prefer western destinations instead. The other constraint being
high hotel tariffs in metropolitan cities.

No clear cut transport Government policy, poor capitalization from

new investors, inadequate airport infrastructure outside metros are some of
the factors responsible for slow growth and poor performance of civil
aviation industry.

There is a need for proper and liberal aviation policy from the
Government which encourages charters and other international carriers
wanting to touch India, while at the same time provide adequate incentives
for development of domestic civil aviation both in private and public
sectors.

Delays in clearance of private airline and airport development

proposals, restrictive tax rules for Government servants getting family leave
travel allowance (LTA) and wanting to travel by air are hampering the
development of civil aviation in the country. Government should amend tax
laws pertaining it easier for families, who want to travel by air.

Expensive aviation turbine fuel (ATF), mounting overheads etc. have

forced many private airlines to tighten their purse strings, while others have
been taken over. Though Government has allowed import of small aircraft
for short haul routes, they remain unattractive as compared to trunk routes in
spite of competition, costs and almost stagnant market base.
 218

The tourist market has been characterized up to now by a very high

price elasticity of demand. lUOTO (now WTO) puts the coefficient of
elasticity at about 1.5 to 2.0. Therefore a reduction of 10% in air fares would
lead to growth of 17 to 22% in traffic.

Private airlines started in India after the initiative taken by

Government to launch the open sky policy. Initially they were called Air
Taxis but later on they got the status of scheduled Airlines. The need of the
hour is that Government makes necessary amendment in the Air Corporation
Act 1953, to control and create the healthy competition between them and
also to give permission to private Airlines to operate International flights
from India because this will help in promoting Tourism in India, thereby
making valuable contribution in the foreign exchange earnings of the
country. It helps people in distress by reaching them long distances within a
short time. Although from the point of view of volume of traffic, the role of
air transport in the country's transportation system is insignification, except
in the case of international passenger traffic, its value from the point of the
quality of its service and the clientele it serves is very important. It also
helps in the supply of essential supplies to hilly and inaccessible areas where
no other means of communication. In the international field, air transport
has helped in developing trade with other nations. With the faster
development of passengers, major cities of the world have come nearer to
each other.

In the field of international tourism, airport plays a very important

role. Because all the Airlines operates from Airports. The Government
should take necessary steps for the modernization of the Airports and to
 219

build Airports in those cities which either do not have or have excess load
on the existing ones. Tourism is one of the largest single element in
international trade for contributes significantly to the nation' earnings.
Developing airline services and offering attractive air-fares have largely
contributed to the success of world tourism. It is estimated that 85% of the
foreign tourists arrive in India by air. The relative decline of air fares has
made international air tourism increasingly attractive and as a result tourists
arrival in India have shown remarkable increase. According to a survey 80%
of those who come to India by air, like to travel within the country also by
air. To meet the demands of growing traffic, the fleet of the two national
carriers - Indian Airlines and Air India, were expanded and equipped with
modern jet aircrafts.

Air traffic rights in international sectors are arranged bilaterally

between countries. Air services are either scheduled or non-scheduled. On
scheduled services, it is possible to travels as an independent passenger, as
an inclusive tour passenger (individually or in a group), as an excursion fare
paying passenger or as a member of an affinity charter group. Fare
structures are calculated, following a chart of normal fares, circle trip fares,
G.I.T. fares, IT fares, or special distinguished areas. On unscheduled
services, it is impossible to travels as a charter inclusive tour passenger as a
member of an affinity charter group or a member of a split charter group.
The lATA (International Air Transport Authority) is the body that fix
international fares of member airlines. The interdependence of tourism and
aviation is an indisputable fact. Improved airline services and promotion
fares attract an ever increasing number of tourists. Air transport depends on
 220

tourist traffic to a great extent for their revenue and therefore makes
strenuous efforts in promoting tourism.

ITDC provides leadership and promote high quality tourism brand

for India by achieving high level of excellence and profit in the field of
hotels, tour and travel, duty free shops, human resource development and
consultancy and creating tourism infrastructure as well as foreign
partnership with State Government for undertaking tourism projects.

The declining profits of ITDC are owing to the interference of the

Government which gives a blow to the functioning of different parts of the
organization, be it recruitment and promotion of employees, changing
marketing strategies, venturing into new areas, financial prospects or other
prospects of the organization. Each and every decision of the organization
has to be approved by the Government. This does not give much chance of
innovation and initiative of the managers. The management is reduced
merely to application of ideas of the top level decision makers. Perhaps this
is the reason why ITDC lags behind its counterparts.

"The persons sitting at the decision making table in the Government

are no experts in tourism. They do not understand the problems faced by a
Service Industry, most importantly, the industry dealing with leisure
activities".•^

The fact is that government only realised the benefit of tourism and
the immense potential in the area. And ITDC is the only public sector
organization working for the promotion of tourism in India, and thus faces
problems.

2. Negi, J.M.S. (1998), Travel and Tourism, Geetanjali Publishing House, New Delhi, p.
390.
 221

Day to day interference by the government machinery causes

hindrance to the working environment, and also delays several important
projects. The priority of work shifts its focus on the government's demands
and decisions with haphazard growth of tourism in India and equally
unmindful policies of government regarding tourism pose a big threat for the
organization that takes initializing for development of this growing industry.

All the public sector organization are formed with the sole purpose
of development of infrastructure, with no particular initiative for profit and
ITDC is not far behind.

This is the reason why ITDC keeps on trying new concepts, where
private sector dare not enter. On the other hand, this is the reason why
ITDC suffers losses. Tourism Task Force; the concept provided by ITDC,
was a project of great innovation, but also greatly initiated. Camps were
established and all modern facilities were used, but it would not cope up
with the budget constraints, and has to be closed down. This also caused
unnecessary diversion of resources.

Secondly, lots of investment and resources of ITDC ate wasted for

the development of infrastructure in the areas which are not profitable from
business point of view. If all these resources had to be judiciously used in
developing those areas which brought good returns on investment, all the
funds and manpower would have gone for a better use.

"In the case of ITDC the principles of Cost-Benefit Analysis does

not work. Any losses due to the inconsistent government policies, unstable
political and law and order situations, and many other which affect this
sensitive industry have to be borne by the organization without grudges.
 222

And the result of this is that the organisation feels that it can bear any
amount of losses, as government is always there to take it out of difficulties.
If such is the feeling of the only government organization in this developing
industry, the fate of the whole tourism industry is just anybody's guess".^

For the generation of profit the ITDC should establish effective

coordination with all the relevant agencies so as to achieve synergy in the
development of tourism. The ITDC should concentrate on a few selected
centres and circuits to achieve balanced development of infrastructure in an
integrated manner.

ITDC should plan hotel projects in the newly created State of

Uttranchal which is now becoming a desirable spot for adventure lovers.
New trekking routes are being developed. ITDC can plan budget hotels in
this area and also assist in transport facilities.

"There are many restricted protected areas in North-East States,

Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Special tourist permits are
necessary for visiting these areas. Due to lesser tourists visiting these areas,
private sector is hesitant to invest here. ITDC should take initiative to build
lodges and resorts in these areas.

Further there are many hidden treasures in India, like the cool,
scheduled beaches in Goa, hill stations, lesser known monuments and other
architectural wonders, which needs proper infrastructural development. One
area which ITDC has not explored is the new concept of tourism, i.e..
Adventure Tourism. This form of tourism not only requires knowledge but

PTI Report, The Times of India, New Delhi, 12.10.1999, p. 6.

 22:

also huge investment in the modern equipments. ITDC should denote a

separate department for exploring the potentials of Adventure Tourism in
India".

And finally, ITDC has tremendous potential for Convention

Tourism with the back drop of excellent infrastructure necessary for a
convention or symposium, and years of experience. ITDC can pool all its
resources and make a separate department of conventions. The Convention
Wing in Marketing Division and that of Ashok Travels and Tours should be
combined, and both should work together.

The fact is that ITDC has a large potential of growth in the coming
years. What is required is a systematically and coordinated effort, to bring,
all units together, as an opportunity to India.

Sahara and Jet Airways should give preference to quality of services

if it is planning to go international since most of the passengers give priority
to the airlines providing good quality of services. It includes both in-flight
services and ground services.

Sahara and Jet Airways should observe on time operation of flights

and punctuality in schedule.

Time to time introduction of various discounted fare schemes for

excursionists, economy class and even business class passengers are also
conducive to growth of tourism. Since Delhi-London is one of the costliest
route in terms of air travelling and discounted fares definitely will fascinate
the passengers.
 224

Discounted fares scheme for students should be made available

during the beginning and end of academic sessions of various British and
Indian Universities.

To enter a new market Sahara and Jet Airways should keep its fares
for each class similar to the fares of CIS carriers but should give services
that European carrier are giving. As a result it will fascinate more and more
passengers.

During the high season Sahara and Jet Airways may increase the fares
a bit to cover the cost of operation and during the low season they should
allow discounts to fascinate passengers, since mobility of passengers during
low season is low and discounted fares may attract a few more towards
Sahara.

Sahara being a new international airline should operate twice a week

to maintain economic operation otherwise airline will go down in terms of
financial status due to over cost.

As far as the configuration of seats is concerned Sahara and Jet

Airways should allow more seats to economy class and excursion class in
the beginning since it is pretty easy to fascinate economy class and
excursionists towards a new airline through discounted fares and other
schemes while business class traveller doesn't rely upon new airlines easily,
since they are very particular about time and convenience.

A major condition for HRP to succeed is that it should be seen as an

integral part of every manager's role and not merely as the body of the
personnel department. So far, managers have been expecting the personnel
 225

departments to take the primary responsibility for planning, identifying and

developing human resources.

The main suggestions to make HRP effective in tourism sector in

India are as under :

• There should be an explicit corporate policy on human resource

planning.

• The top head must have full belief in the value of his employees who
are his greatest resource.

• HRP needs of the tourism organization should be seriously planned,

examined and an action plan for HRP should be prepared.

• HRP departments should be headed by competent persons and should

be placed close to the Chief Executive on the organization chart.

Conducive climate should be developed in the tourism industry.

• Heads of various departments who are dealing with HRP should be

encouraged to share their experiences and develop professionally the
human resource under them.

^
•I* It is the right time to accord the status of priority to tourism industry
due to increase in tourist arrivals and the socio-economic benefits of
the tourism phenomenon.

• The Government should set up a high power committee consisting of

Human Resource Planning professionals, professionals from the
tourism industry, prominent economists and intellectuals to study and
 226

assess various aspects of HRP and conclude on a National Tourism

Policy on HRP.

• Tourism which is a highly labour intensive industry, should have an

integrated HRP system with both public and private sector
participation in order to develop human resources to meet the
requirements of tourism industry.

^
•I* Manpower resource division of Public and Private sector
organizations should look that programmes for HRP are conducted
with foreign collaborations for maintaining International status.

^
•> In this modern age, the planners technologies are exposed to the
tourism personnel for optimum efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The training establishments/institutes should have exchange

programme for personnel with foreign countries to ensure qualitative
and quantitative training in successive development of human
resource.

C*
•> Zonal manpower resource centre should be established to recognize
tourism as a factor for regional development and also should conduct
studies on the availability of skilled and semi-skilled human resources
in their concerned regions.

• In order to study the various training establishments and training

programmes conducted by different countries, the perspective
planners should send study missions for gathering information which
will be useful in formulating plans and strategies for human resource
development and setting up training establishments in our country.
 227

To choose the best human resource from various educational

institutions/universities, we should incorporate vocational training
programmes in order to create human resource from the grass root
level. There should be awareness programmes and career orientation
lectures to encourage youth to opt for career in the different segments
of the tourism industry.

• A Parliamentary Affairs Committee should look into introducing

Education Reform Bills to ensure quality education with an industrial
approach and thereby develop human resources to a great extent.

• HRP programmes should give due emphasis on high tech functional

training to impart necessary skills.

Seminars, workshops, conferences should be conducted to discuss

problems and prospects of HRP at the national and international level.

For awareness and the implementation of various schemes for HRP,

there should be a Confederation of Indian Travel Industries (CITI).
The CITI can monitor the implementation and advise the Government
in formulation of policies for the development of the tourism industry
in general and HRP in particular.

•>
•> A single-window facility for the tourists to avail of various services
should be provided for promoting tourism in every state.

Government should allow tax holidays for the hotels constructed in

the remote areas and hill stations soon to boost tourist traffic.
 228

The hotels should make all arrangements to provide food to the

tourists according to (heir taslcs and linkages and this would give

boost to tourism development in our country.

• The staff in the government holds are inefficient and fail to offer

services of required standard. There must be a committee to

investigate the complaints reported by the tourists and action should

be taken against the employees who are found negligent on their part.

They should be given orientation lectures and training programmes

and even after that they are found incorrigible, should be replaced

with polite and courteous staff.

ITDC hotels need marketing and sales promotion which is largely

lacking off at present.

The reason for low occupancy rate of ITDC hotels should be

identified and the discrepancies causing the low occupancy rate must

be removed.

More duty free shops should be added to the ITDC elite hotels.

• Red tapism, bureaucracy and politicians inferences should be avoided

in hotels.

• Hospitality industry should employ skilled staff to provide extensive

personal services. A well trained highly flexible staff is the hotel's

most profitable investment

• There should be decontrol of hotel tariff Electricity, import license

and other infrastructural facilities should be made available at

concessional rates.
 229

C*
•>
The ITDC should use the time spent by travellers at airports offering
an international shopping experience.

There should be an arcade at the duty free shops that should sell only
'destination goods'. At the arcade the duty free shops should keep an
array of Indian handicrafts, jewellery and handlooms.

ITDC should tap the inbound traffic with glamour around shops.

The State Governments should give priorities in regard to tourist

attractions for overseas marketing.

The India's tourism policy must focus on operational constraints

which have hampered Indian tourism on a large scale.

High taxation by the Government has resulted in lesser growth and

development of Indian tourism. The State and Central Governments
have levied taxes so heavily that India as a destination has become
very expensive and unattractive to foreign tourists. The taxes which
foreign tourists pay are expenditure tax, luxury tax, sales tax, charged
by hotels, road tax, passenger tax, toll tax charged by the State
Governments, airport department tax and on top of that the service
tax. A new tourism policy should be drafted soon where those should
be incorporation of relaxation on all these taxes.

Indian tourism has not been coming on top to its potential level for
the reason that the policies laid down by the Government are not
conducive to the growth of international tourism in India. The travel
segment is of the view that the travel industry hardly gets any benefits
from the Government, except u/s 80 HHD of the Income Tax Act
 230

where 50 per cent of the income earned in foreign exchange is

exempted.

• Inadequate infrastructure is another factor of much concern for Indian

tourism. As a matter of fact, one of the major setbacks that the
Department of Tourism has suffered is that its demand for substantial
investments amounting to Rs. 45,000 crores which involves Centre,
State financial institutions and private sector to develop tourist
infrastructure has remained unsatiated. Modernisation of Delhi and
Mumbai airports is needed urgently. It s believed that the Department
of Tourism has been unable to convince the Finance Ministry and the
Planning Commission to grant adequate resources for the
development of infrastructure. It is imperative on the part of the
Department of Tourism to fight all the way to acquire those sources
for integrated infrastructure development.

• Air Sahara should not be merged with Jet Airways. Rather it should
compensate the previous losses by developing its infrastructure
facilities on the international level, customers satisfaction and
enhancing its number of fleets and so on.

Recommendations :

In sum and substance the study finds that Human resource planning is
gaining much attention from human resource specialists, academicians and
employees alike. It is felt that the importance of HRP will increase further.
As per forecast of World Tourism Organisation, tourism growth prospects
for India are very bright and tourist arrivals and receipts are likely to
increase fastly in the coming years. With these growing trends in the tourism
 231

industry in India which is considered labour intensive industry. Human

resource plays an important role in managing, operating, planning and
promoting tourism industry. Thus, HRP efforts in tourism industry needs a
major transformation in the attitudes, behaviour and values of employees as
well as management. This is possible only if appropriate organsiation
culture is developed by the tourism organization to make HRP more
successful and introduced it as a total system within the tourism industry.

Therefore, HRP plays a major role for the development of tourism

sector. HRP should be taken on a priority basis and adequate planning
measures should be undertaken accordingly because the best and efficient
human resources can increase customer satisfaction and thereby to create a
competitive edge in this global world. The customer satisfaction through
HRP in tourism will continue to be a significant factor in determining how
tourism develops in future. Effective customer care is more significant than
training of the staff in smiling pleasant manner and complaint handling.
Good customer relations come from a total management culture within an
organization.

In spite of the fact that tourism has been given the status of an
industry in India, inbound tourism or domestic tourism has not grown in
planned manner. The reason is that govt, department. The hotel industry and
the tour operators have no close cooperation or coordination among
themselves. Further the role of the travel media has been completely ignored
unlike any other country. Travel media plays an important role in giving an
exposure to the best tourists products of a country the services of the travel
industry and the good hotels/properties. Travel media is a guide for
 232

consumers as well as for the industry and the tour operators should make
full use of it.

One of India's biggest problems is to fmd employment for its

citizens. India has the largest number of unemployed persons in the world.
Germany has about 0.45 million unemployed, the USA has about 8 million
jobless people. The corresponding figure for India is 38 million. Travel and
Tourism directly creates employment opportunities in hotels, airlines, travel
agencies, passenger ships, transport companies, tour operation units,
immigration, etc., and in industries like construction, money changing,
telecommunication, souvenir shops, manufacturing and retail trade, as a
result of the spread effect. Most important from India's point of view is the
fact that these employment opportunities will be created in the small and
medium segments of the industries and dispersed throughout the country. In
India, travel and tourism is still considered an elite 'five star' activity,
though WTO has recognized the role of this sector in poverty alleviation by
job creation. We also need to note that tourism will be the leading job
creator in the next decade, in the global economy.

It is evident that there is a need to strengthen the partnership between

Government and the Industry to promote tourism education in India. The
private sector should contribute in a big way to promote Education and
Training for this critical sector, which is poised to grow tremendously in the
new millennium. There is a need for greater collaboration between
Government and the industry. Governments, whether at national or state
levels, should adopt a leadership role in the development of human
 233

resources. They should facilitate urgent investment in education and

training.

Another significant step to be taken is to bridge the gap between

educational authorities and the industry - creating groups to develop the
skills required by the industry. They should help promote careers in travel
and tourism to help stimulate interest in the industry as a source of
employment. Time and again, the need to set up an effective platform of
body to take care of the interests of all the players of tourism has been put
forth not only by scholars but also by the industry and opinion makers.
Today the need for such a body is all the more crucial from the point of view
of tourism training and education. Only such a body can make the industry
realize its responsibilities towards tourism education and training. It is
essential to advance the value of education and training in tourism to
employers, employees and the Government. Unless all the players of
tourism realize the importance of training and education nothing substantial
can be achieved. A synergistic view of commitment towards human resource
development is the key to success of the Travel and Tourism industry today
as also in the years to come.

If the suggestions made are implemented properly, it will keep the

ship of tourism sector sailing in the right direction. Without quality
improvement in human resource planning, the potential for development of
tourism would be externally limited and the dream of achieving global
competitiveness in the tourism sector will be in vain.

Main findings which have been drawn from the case studies
undertaken of Air Sahara and Jet Airways and ITDC which reveal that the
 234

factors affect the overall improvement of the functioning of Air Sahara and
Jet Airways, and thus the strong recommendation is made to the Ministry of
Civil Aviation and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, New Delhi,
to implement the suggestions for the proper functioning of these
organizations and thereby maximize the profit as well as to achieve the
desired results.

Demand for air seats between metros is growing fast as people have
begin to attach value to time, but impediments in the way of expansion are
inadequate ground handling and navigational facilities on these trunk routes.
It is recommended that investment should be made to develop them.

The Jet Airways has done a lot in the field of tourism promotion in
recent decades like giving more new promotional schemes and there by
providing the incentives to the passengers or the tourists under various
promotional schemes. It is also recommended that still it needs more
attention towards promotion of tourism in India and abroad.

It is further recommended that the Government of India should form a

'HRP Board' which should encourage the researches upon increasing
potentiality of human resources. It should take many productive and
aggressive steps for the promotion of HRP. The need of the hour is to tackle
grassroots realities of HRP and then take some harsh measures to infuse a
new blood in Indian tourism sector.

Direction for Future Research :

The study has elaborately dwelt upon human resource development

instrumentalities in terms of planning, recruitment, selection, training and
 235

development, reward systems, performance appraisal, career development

and counselling and organizational culture and effectiveness in tourism
industry particularly referring to hospitality and service sector. Further
research can be undertaken to study the tourism industry with reference to
HRP in travel agencies and training institutes.