600 tourism professionals to get training in hospitality

Dehradun July 25
About 600 professionals associated with tourism from all over the state will be given training in hospitality by the staff of the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) in Dehradun under a scheme funded by the Centre.

The first batch of 15 professionals from the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) is undergoing training on the IHM premises these days.

Of these, five are working at the canteen of the secretariat, five at the canteen of the Chief Minister’s office and another five at the canteen at the Chief Minister’s residence. Each workshop will run for one week.

General Manager, Tourism, GMVN, HD Pandey said the training would be provided in services such as front office and housekeeping, besides basics in etiquettes.

The trainees would also be guided about the significance of information with regard to historical, geographical or cultural perspective of the place where their hotel or restaurant or outlet was situated to satiate any query of the tourist.

Pandey said the GMVN employees posted at various tourist rest houses lacked training in hospitality and this was affecting business.

According to sources, most of the employees working at the 91 rest houses of the GMVN were those who were hired decades ago on the recommendation of the higher management of the GMVN or politicians. No one bothered to check their educational background, leave alone specialisation in the field of tourism.

This is the reason the employees in most of the rest houses are found wanting in according warm reception, keeping rooms spot clean and providing quick services to guests. They also dither on showing enthusiasm to woo customers to their outlets. The Tourism Department is hoping to remove this deficiency in a big way.

Even those dhabawalas, eating outlets, hotels and restaurants, which are associated with tourism activity directly or indirectly in the vicinity of the rest houses, will also be included in the workshop.

Only those rest houses will be selected for training which have the capacity of 20 beds or more.

This way, more than 40 rest houses, which are situated in far off places and have been declared sick, will automatically get excluded.

To make the workshop comprehensive, demonstrations will also be given. A stipend of Rs 1,200 along with a certificate will be given to the participants after holding an exam at the end of the workshop. The best performers will be duly rewarded.