Hospitality Management is one of the most sought
after career option in recent times. It has a global demand. If we look at the
global demand we have to start from the number of Hotels in the world because
that is where the demands come from. Talking of number, there are 40 lakhs
Hotels all around the world with 300 million people employed(Source; STR
Global Survey Reports 2015). Considering a 10 percent of retirement rate
each year, 10 percent of 300 million comes 30 million. This shows that 30
million people are required by Hotel Industry every year as the same in number
of people are retiring and the same positions have to be fulfilled.
Talking about Nepal, according to the data of Hotel
Association of Nepal(HAN) there are 2500 Hotels employing 3 lakhs people.
Calculating the retirement rate at 10 percent, 30 thousand people are retiring
every year. So, 30 thousand people are required each year by Nepalese Hotel
Industry only.
For students who are looking for a career in Hotel
or Hospitality management, I have a few suggestions, there are lots of Hotel
Management colleges to choose from but it is important that one should make a
research, visit the colleges and choose the best one. It’s a matter of spending
4 years so why can’t we spend 4 days in choosing a college? Look at the infrastructure; see the success
rate of placement of graduates and interact with the faculty members as well as
the past students before making a decision. Parents must also be aware of the
facts of Hospitality industry before they help in making this important
decision as they are the investors.
There are about 40 Hotel Management colleges and
around 100 smaller vocational Hotel training institutes in Nepal. The total
number comes around 150 institutions for Hotel management education all over
Nepal. They are producing six to seven thousand people every year. Now wecan
compare the demand of 30 thousand being met by the supply of 7 thousand. There
is a deficit of almost 22 thousand people every year.
But, there is another problem. Out of those 7 thousand
available, majority do not want to work in Nepal, they want to go abroad. Only
10 percent of those i.e. only 600 are deployed in Nepalese Hotels and rest all
go abroad. In this way our local demand is never fulfilled.This situation is because
everyone wants to work in five star Hotels and there are only about 9 five star
Hotels in Nepal. Graduates are not ready to work in cities like Pokhara or
Chitwan; they all want to work in Kathmandu. This has become a big challenge
for the Hotel industry to manage the demand and supply of the employees.
Therefore, I feel that few more hospitality management colleges need to be
established to cater the global demand and not just the demand of the local
market.
Because of the climatic comfort ability, Nepal could
be a hub for Hospitality Education. In the recent years there are the inquire
from the students from India, China,
Bangladesh, Srilanka, Bhutan, Maldives and many other Asian Countries to study
Hospitality in Nepal. This is a very good sign and we need to think of catering
the demands of the international students and create an environment suitable
for them to study.
Hotel Management is a rewarding career indeed. In
Asian perspective, salary of Food and Beverage Manager on an average is 4.5 lakhs rupees a month, Front Office Manager earns
almost 4 lakhs, Housekeeper 4 Lakhs, Executive chef 7 lakhs and the salary of a
General Manager on an average is 10 lakh a month. Talking of Nepal, F & B Manager
Salary in five stars Hotel is at least 1.5 lakh a month, Executive Housekeeper
and Front Office Manager also earn around 1.5 lakhs. An executive chef of a
five star Hotel in Nepal gets around 3-4 lakhs a month and General Manager's
salary is up to 6 lakhs. So, it’s really rewarding financially.
Having just a degree in this field does not assure
the success and financial reward. Recruiter doesn’t pay for the degree but for
skills. A Hospitality Management student must possess a good personality, must
be dynamic and physically smart. Dynamic in the sense that he/she must be able
to communicate with people from different countries in the world.If weare
working in the reception, wewill be conversing with Japanese speaking English,
Germans speaking English and even Spanish speaking English. Therefore, the
anticipation of what the guest would speak is necessary.
A Hotel management student has to be an all rounder.
He/she must be smart, intelligent, looking forward, having positive attitude
and a problem solver as there are several guest problems come across in the
Hotels every day. A student, who has 90 percent marks but does not have soft
human skills,is not appropriate for this field.
