–Nithis Kumar (nithiskumar49@gmail.com)
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is hard to do what we want amid crisis. It is a global pandemic. It was affected nearly 185 countries across the world, and many sectors have been affected by its impact. It is tough to imagine how we alleviate this virus. Global co-operation is indeed especially between government and public-private partnerships (PPP).
Recently, The hospitality and food & beverage (F&B) industry in India has joined the hands to eradicate the virus along with the government. According to the latest HVS Report, the total revenue of the Indian hotel sector in 2020 is drastically declining by anywhere between USD 8.85 Bn to USD 10 Bn. Comparatively, this is a huge loss for the entire sector. Due to its loss, the hotel owners can’t be able to pay their debts. In addition to that, the Hotel leaders and staffs are panics because of the salary cuts.
The hospitality sector is indeed for our survival. In these hard times, they are doing their best job by giving fresh meals for the people who are in need especially to quarantine centers.
The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), through its member hotels, has given permission for the government to access over 45,000 hotel rooms across the country. The hotel rooms are ranging from five-star to a decent level. It’s been allocated for the tourists who are stuck because of nationwide lockdown. Let’s see how these industries function amid crisis.
Hotels as Quarantine Facilities:
182 Hotel rooms across the IBIS, The Lemon Tree Premier and Red Fox in Aerocity near Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi, it is said to be paid at low cost with quarantine facilities. Nine hotel chains, including Lemon Tree, Radisson Hotels and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), are collaboratively providing 392 rooms as paid quarantine facilities in Gurugram. In Tamil Nadu, OYO will be offering sanitized beds for the people that are set within the proximity of Apollo Hospitals in six cities namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata including self-quarantine facilities and isolation for Covid-19 patients. Meanwhile, the Mahindra Group has been offered to use its Mahindra Holiday Resorts as temporary care facilities.
Providing Food for the Needy:
On the other side, JW Marriott Sahar Mumbai and Renaissance Powai are also distributing food to many organizations such as Seven Hills Hospital, Police Stations, and BMC workers daily. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is necessary to protect against the virus, and it’s been distributed to several Police Stations.
Ritz-Carlton Bangalore has joined the to give meals to those people who are in need. The Pride Group of Hotels have been distributing 1,000 food parcels every day during the lockdown period in the cities of Pune, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, and Nagpur. The Oberoi Gurgaon and Radisson Gurgaon have been combined to give some 500 daily packed meals to the under privileged people in Delhi. The Park Hotel Hyderabad is offering food to the corporation workers and traffic police.
Providing Rooms for the Medical Fraternity:
IHCL, the company is offering rooms at 8 of their hotels across India for the medical fraternity for staying. They also provide meals daily to all medical staff who have been working tirelessly amid a health crisis. The Hyatt Regency, Lemon Tree, The Piccadily, and Fairfield by Marriott in Lucknow have been converted into quarantine zones for the medical staffs who are in close contact with COVID-19 patients. In Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital and GB Pant Hospital, for the servants on COVID-19 duty are housed at The Lalit New Delhi. They are also working to provide meals for migrant workers. There are around 300 rooms have been offered to the Medical Staff of Seven Hills Hospital by Renaissance Powai.
Some other initiatives such as The Radisson Hotel Group has contributed to the sum of Rs. 35 lakhs to Prime Minister funds to fight against the pandemic. There are many hotels in Chennai offering food to the needy and animals as well. Some hotels have planned to give more creative solutions to the problem, so they come up with partnerships. For example, Zomato and OYO are combined to give food to the needy. The Indian F&B industry and local restaurant businesses, besides all these things, it’s been affected the lives of over 7.3 million people because of a nationwide shutdown. It is said to be that many employees had returned to their homes when the actual lockdown started. They are now looking for funds to do something for the people who are in need.
The National Restaurant Association of India has launched a ‘Feed the needy’ campaign where donations are completely used to serve food for the people. According to them, As of 5th April 2020, over 3.5 lakh meals had been served to the public.
Dineout has launched “Restaurant Vouchers” that customers can purchase now and reimburse later at 20,000+ partner restaurants for the period of 6 months. They are also started an online petition to support NRAI. They have been requesting the Finance Ministry and Government of India to help restaurants with employee unemployment pay cover, delay in bill payments, holiday stoppage on EMI payments & interest, freezing rental dues & restoration of GST for all restaurants, and more.
Undoubtedly, our hotel heroes are doing a great job to fight against the COVID-19 in these hard times.
