With half of its population under 25 and the unemployment rate at four-decade high, India faces an uncertain future. The question on young people’s minds: what kinds of jobs will we have? Quartz asked leaders across India’s biggest industries about that one job in their company or field that will be the most crucial in the coming decades.
Tourism and hospitality accounts for 9% of India’s GDP, and employs 44 million people. However, the closure of Jet Airways coupled with a slowdown in business activity weighed heavily on hotel and travel industry in 2019. Also, the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir accompanied with restrictions on the movement of foreign and domestic tourists impacted hotel occupancy rates. Hotel aggregator OYO’s move to lay off thousands of employees reflects the troubles faced by the sector.
Dinaz Madhukar, executive vice president or DLF Luxury Retail & Hospitality, told Quartz:
Today, the true essence of luxury is what a customer feels, not just what they see. We see the spotlight gradually shifting towards an experiential curator or innovator who designs “white-glove” experiences that are more exclusive for consumers than the standard trend-based options. Since this is a new role, the biggest challenge is that there is no precedent for this position. Second, since this person must be creative, innovative, and detail-oriented, it can be difficult to find all of these strengths in a single candidate. Lastly, since there is no formal qualification that one can pointedly apply to this role, the pre-requisite experience and qualifications applicable to hire such talent base remain undefined.