UEI Global, an educational venture of US-based Berggruen Holdings, is bullish on the growth of hospitality segment and is planning to expand its network of management institutes in India.
Currently, UEI runs 13 institutes across 12 cities, which it plans to increase to 40 in the next three years. The functional campuses are located in Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Agra, Dehra Dun, Chandigarh, Pune and a copule of other places.
“The services sector has not been affected by the slowdown in the domestic economic growth rate and the demand for quality manpower in the hospitality and tourism segments would only increase in future,” UEI Global managing director and CEO Manish Khanna told Business Standard.
He said the growing number of new hotels, restaurants and other hospitality and travel related properties in the country were the testimony to this fact.
Khanna said the Indian middle class had now started to travel and eat out more, which would only help the hospitality and tourism sectors grow when there was general slowdown in industrial growth rate.
He further informed UEI’s training programmes were affiliated to several Indian universities and institutes, including Delhi University, IGNOU, Osmania University, All India Management Association (AIMA) etc.
Berggruen Holdings, which also runs a chain of budget Keys Hotel brand, plans to double its number of properties in India from 12 at present, including one in Lucknow.