IHCL REAFFIRMS ITS COMMITMENT TO GIVE BACK TO THE INDUSTRY

Chandigarh,sunita shastri:Ahead of World Tourism Day, The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), South Asia’s largest hospitality company,takes pride in its steadfast commitment to the growth of the industry. Travel and tourism has gone beyond from just being attractive destinations to being an important economic growth contributor. Tourism is integral to any nation’s prosperity as it not just propels jobs, exports and foreign exchange earning but also enables alliedenterprises, livelihoods and celebrates the heritage and culture of thedestinations its serves.Since 2007, IHCL’s Building Livelihoods Programme has directly trained and certified over 30,000 youth who have dropped out from schools from identified remote areas, urban slums and tribal belts in association with State Industrial Training Institutes, Non-Governmental Organizations, TISS School of Vocational Education and Tata Strive amongst others; with over 85 per cent of these trained youth securing immediate job placements in the hotel and service industry. A large number of these youth come from socially backward communities. IHCL currently runs 14 Skill Development Centers in partnership with Tata Strive to anchor capability-building; thereby creating a much larger indirect impact through training faculties and by supporting several other vocational training institutes through this partnership in regions such as J&K, the North-East, UP, and so on. The company also offers a three-years Bachelors in Vocational Education Programme in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences at 15 of its hotels across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Goa. Committed to the ethos of Tata Affirmative Action, IHCLalso focuses on enabling employability and entrepreneurial opportunities for socially backward communities and tribal groups through its CSR and business supply chain. The company, through its brands and businesses procures goods and services from social impact enterprises and artisans across several destinations supporting over 1000 families and 100 artisans’ livelihoods. Regarded as the custodian of Indian hospitality, IHCLcontinues to invest in buildingindustry-relevant talent pools with an aim to develop and support deserving youth and their families, while bridging the employability gapand contributing to the overall sustainability of the industry.