Hotel Association of India (HAI), the apex body of the Indian hospitality sector held its milestone 25th Annual General Meet (AGM) in New Delhi on the 16th of March. In addition to adopting and approving the financial results for the year 2020-2021 and appointing auditors for the financial year of 2021-2022, the AGM ‘s agenda included elections of the Association’s executive committee
Rupak Gupta, Managing Director of UP Hotels, and Surinder Singh, Area Director, The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) are the two newly elected committee members. While Gupta is the nominee for HAI’s member hotels in the category of 5 star deluxe and 5 star, the hotels classified in the ministry’s classification categories of 3 and 4 star would be represented by Singh.
The AGM was followed by the meeting of the executive committee to elect the four office-bearers. The committee, in recognition of the current team’s efforts in the period of the last two extremely difficult pandemic-ridden years, decided unanimously to re-elect the management committee for another consecutive term of two years.
Led by the president, Puneet Chhatwal, MD and CEO of IHCL, the team comprises KB Kachru, (Vice President) Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor, South Asia Radisson Hotel Group, J K Mohanty (Hon. Secretary) Managing Director of Swosti Premium Limited, Patu Keswani (Hon Treasurer) CMD of Lemon Tree Hotels and will continue to direct the Association throughout its term of office till 2023.
While welcoming the new members and congratulating the team, Secretary-General, MP Bezbaruah expressed that continuity will strengthen HAI’s many new initiatives to forcefully voice the interest of the industry.
HAI, had earlier met tourism minister G Kishan Reddy with a single point agenda to re-iterate its request for according hotels the status of ‘Infrastructure’. The Ministry and the government have acknowledged the Industry’s long-standing demand and have recently initiated a dialogue to address the same.
The industry is on the road to recovery at the back of domestic tourism. The recent announcement of the resumption of regular international passenger flights from 27th March will aid the recovery further
