Edu-leaders

Part of the world’s largest Hotel Chain, Best Western in India, in collaboration with Ranjita Institute of Hotel Management and Catering(RIHC), today announced the launch of The Best Western Centre For Hotel Management and Training at Bhubaneshwar.

Located at Bidyanagar, Mahura, Janla, Bhubaneswar in Odisha the new campus within the current premises of RIHC itself is spread over 10 Aares and will train approximately 500 in the first year and scaling up to over 1,000 students every year the new Best Western Centre For Hotel Management and Training will commence its next session from February 2011.

This initiative makes Best Western India the first amongst any international hotel chain present in the country to set up their Education centre in India. Mr.Sudhir Sinha, President & COO, Best Western India, said that Best Western is probably the only international chain which has tremendous online certification and raining resources available for all the key departments like front office, housekeeping, maintenance, food & beverage production, food & production service, sales, etc. for all its employees already. These courses are all available to the students of this training centre online. The training and certification modules of Best Western help share the global best practices identified across our over 4000 hotels worldwide.

Best Western also has preferential tie-up with the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH & LA) for the certified hospitality supervisor and certified hospitality administrator courses and the famous Cornell University for their e-learning courses. All this provides great depth in its endeavor to provide world class training and education resources to the prospective students.

Dr Prabhu Goel, Co-Chairman, Best Western India, elaborated "We enter hospitality education with a firm commitment of making a marked difference in the quality of the alumni that will churn out. This in turn will deliver enhanced guest satisfaction and better upkeep and returns on the hotel owners investments".

Mr Sanjib Rout, the Chairman of Ranjita Institute of Hotel Management & Catering continued "Hospitality industry will lead the way for employment generation opportunities as India enters into a higher GDP growth trajectory, ensuring that we are not faced with the jobless growth scenario which is being witnessed in most parts of the developed world. All these factors portend an auspicious growth omen for this association of Best Western India and Ranjita Institute of Hotel Management will provide sound business logic for the financial success of this venture as well through."

Dr Goel also used the occasion to announce the setting up of the Best Western International reservation call centre in partnership with Tatwa Technologies Limited at Bhubaneshwar. He said Best Western in India takes the inspiration from the vision of Best Western International "Lead the industry in superior Customer Care" and its meeting its mission statement "Enhance brand equity and increase member value".

Mr Rout added that the Institutes campus will be fully residential and will be offering courses including a three year B.Sc. in hospitality & hotel administration, P.G. diploma in accommodation operation & management, craftsmanship course in food production, patisserie & craftsmanship course in food & beverage service, hotel entrepreneurial and other modular programs.

Having seen impressive growth from 9 operational hotels in 2009 to 19 operational hotels currently (Dec-2010), and with 11 more in the construction and pre-opening stage, Best Western in India is well poised for explosive growth in the years ahead. Representing the best interests of its 30 member hotels currently and meeting and exceeding the aspirations of their association with a strong international brand, Best Western India is charting its own trajectory in the competitive mid market hospitality segment of India.

Mr Susant Patnaik, Director, Best Western India, added, "Best Western brings with it over 6 decades of experience in the international lodging industry and has gained tremendous insights into the expectations of the international traveler. This has helped Best Western take various initiatives in terms of product and service quality as well as associated training programs, to help not just deliver but exceed those expectations and stay ahead of the learning curve in the hospitality industry. Over the years Best Western initiatives have been recognized worldwide in leading the industry in framing of the best practices for the hospitality industry, things which are now considered normal practice".

RIHC which has tremendous experience in the academic field already has Institutes for various engineering, polytechnic and business management courses under the C V Raman Group of Institutes. The Ranjita Institute of Hotel Management and Catering is already offering National Council of Hotel Management recognized courses.

Mr Rout added "Part of the campus will also be a 40 room Best Western Hotel along with training institute to provide on the job training to the students"

"Best Western India currently has sellable room inventory of around 1200 keys, which is expected to increase to around 2400 keys by the time the chain will have all 30 hotels operational. With the ballpark industry average of staffing ratio, the Best Western Hotels themselves will require around 3700 qualified hotel industry professionals by next year in its chain alone" said Mr Sinha.

Ranjita Institute of Hotel Management and Catering is already offering National Council of Hotel Management recognized courses, which further adds to the raison d'etre of this tie-up. RIHC also has institutes for various engineering, polytechnic and business management courses under the C V Raman Institutes.

"Our rapid growth in India, coupled with this acute shortage of professional workers, provides the right platform for Best Western India to announce this maiden venture, which will also incubate our future growth in the field of hospitality education" said Mr Sinha.