 "Odisha needs Rs 1,450 crore to triple hotel rooms by 2025")
Odisha has 9,791 tourists per category hotel rooms, which are higher than the national average of 7,357, according to India Tourism Statistics, that implies the state has a dearth of category hotel rooms.
"During 2013-14, the net flow of tourist spending has grown by 117%, contributed majorly by domestic tourists (growth of 120%), while the number of tourists have grown by only 8%. This implies increased length of stay, higher spending per tourist arrivals and substantiates the demand for luxury and category hotel rooms in the state," read a report prepared by the KPMG jointly with Ipicol.
A threefold increase in the number of hotel rooms in the state by 2025 will require a capital expenditure of Rs 1,450 crore through a public private participation, added the report.
With an average length of stay of two days, four days and 14 days for domestic tourists from within the state, domestic tourists outside the state and foreign tourists respectively, the average hotel occupancy rate in the state is over 80% well above the national value of 57%. The overutilization of resources has led to an impact of quality.
"Considering an average of 5,000 tourists served per category hotel room, the number of category hotel rooms should be 5,000, an increase of close to 4,000 category rooms. In order to bring down the average hotel room occupancy rate to 60%, the number of hotel beds have to be beefed up to 2,70,000 by 2025 , a threefold increase in the number of hotel beds", added the report on Odisha Industrial Development plan 2025.
Assuming an average number of employee per room of 1.6, the employment potential is additional 1.6 lakh direct and an additional 4.6 lakh indirect jobs in the hotels and restaurants sector in the state by 2025. While there is an incremental skill gap of 6.4 lakhs in the tourism sector, a Centre of Excellence for Tourism should be developed with training provided in the areas like front-offices, interpreters, housekeeping, suggested the report.
"Odisha has the lowest number of classified hotels as well as hotel rooms in the country. When Kerala has 381 classified hotels, Odisha has only nine classified hotels. In last 20 years, Odisha has added only two hotels with 173 rooms, whereas in places like Mumbai they have added 82,865 rooms, Delhi 76,934, Bengaluru 47,429 etc. Unless we add hotel rooms in important tourist places of the state, we cannot expect any growth in the tourism sector", said J K Mohanty, chairman, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO).
