The Omicron threat has hit the hotel industry, which was slowly bouncing back after the second wave in March and April last year, with the business down by anywhere between 30% to 60%.
November and December last showed the promise of industry getting back on its toes but the Omicron threat has now damaged the hopes, said Shankar Krishnamurthy, Hyderabad Chapter Head of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).
However, he hopes that by March situation would improve and the Telangana government has been quite supportive in terms of not being too strict with the working hours and other issues associated with restaurants functioning.
As a part of the efforts to bring hotels and restaurants on a single platform and work with the government, the hoteliers formed the Hyderabad chapter of NRAI, which was launched by Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries and IT here on Friday.
Mr. Jayesh Ranjan said the government understand the precarious situation of the industry and a representative body like NRAI would provide a better platform for the government to engage and extend help.
Sampath Tummala, Co-Chapter Head said the restaurant business is not recognised as an industry despite it contributing huge resources in the form of taxes to the state and central governments. “The industry contributes much higher than film and entertainment industry but it is still regarded as the unorganised sector,” he said.
Mr. Tummala said the NRAI Hyderabad chapter will facilitate global brands investments in commensurate with the city stature apart from giving fillip for local brands to go global. The organised market share of restaurants in Hyderabad is around Rs. 6,037 crores.
The NRAI Hyderabad chapter now has a membership of over 200 restaurants and our effort is to strengthen it further bringing thousands of small and medium restaurants on board so that the overall industry can benefit collectively, Mr. Sampath Tummala said. “The recent meeting with IT Minister, K.T. Rama Rao gave us a lot of hope in streamlining the industry for the benefit of investors, employees and the customers,” he said.
