Management of SMEsin the tourism sector

Abstract

Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) form an important share of contributors to the Tourism Sector in India. SMEs in the tourism sector include: ?? Hotels ?? Tour Operators ?? Ticketing Agents Consolidators ?? Travel Vocational Training Institutes ?? Travel Portals, etc The objective of this study is to understand how tourism SMEs are different from larger players. It concentrates specifically on the hotel industry which is the most important element of the tourism sector. Hotels can be classified into various categories: ?? Five star, Four star and heritage hotels ?? Three, two & one star hotels ?? Small budget hotels, guesthouses & inns in the unorganized sector. There are an estimated 1.2 million hotel rooms in the country. However, the star category hotels account for a mere 7% (approximately 80000 rooms). 3% of the total rooms fall under four and five star hotels category.1 This study looks into the small hotel category and to some extent the one, two and three star category.