K Syama Raju, MD, Hotel Maurya, has been re-elected as the president of South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA) at their 64th Annual General Meeting held recently at Chennai. T Nataraajan, CEO, GRT Hotels and Resorts was re-elected hon secretary for the year 2015 – 2016. The method of e-voting was followed for the first time to select the office bearers of SIHRA.
Speaking after the election Raju said that inspite of world recession in business tourism, the luxury segment and group tourism in India picked up well. Talking about the central and state government’s support in promoting hospitality industry, he said, “Central government’s initiative to introduce e-visa has increased the flow of tourist arrivals in the current year. The state governments have decided to promote special tourism areas like medical tourism, MICE tourism and religious tourism to increase the occupancy of rooms. I am sure that there will be substantial growth in the revenue to the states if proper review is done on the implementation of taxes and cess.”
He further added, “There is a welcome development in the order issued by the Telecom Regulative Authority of India on the prevailing tariff, whereby Hotels will be treated on par with domestic subscribers. This was done with the efforts taken by SIHRA and FHRAI (The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India) before TDSAT (Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal). The company law Board has brought new amendments which our Association will be following and necessary changes will be done. Regarding legislation food safety and standard regulation introduced by FSSAI, our representation with the authority on the anomalies was considered and have postponed the legislation till 2016. I request the members to follow the basic regulations from the hygienic point of view.”
The following were elected as vice presidents; K Murali Rao, managing director, New Woodlands Hotel will be the vice president for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry; Subir Bhowmick, director projects, Taj GVK Hotels and Resorts, Hyderabad is the vice president for Andhra Pradesh; Suresh Pillai, director, Hotel Horizon, Trivandrum will be vice president for Kerala and K Nagaraju, director, The Atria Hotel, Bengaluru will be vice president for Karnataka.
The executive committee members will be; R Srinivasan, MD , Radha Regent Chennai; Balakrishna Reddy, director, Bliss Hotels, Tirupati; Prabhu Shankar, director, Ashraya International Hotel, Bengaluru; GV Krishnaiah, president, AP Hotels Association, Hyderabad; M Venkadasubbu, president of Tamil Nadu Hotels Association; Venkataramana Babu, New Woodlands Hotel, Chennai and D Srinivasan, director, Sree Annapoorna Sree Gowrishankar Hotels.