Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective, Vol 1(1), 16, January 2014

Human Resource Development in Tourism Industry

in India: a Case Study of Jet Airways India Ltd.
Anushree Banerjee*
Faculty Manyawar Kanshiram Institute of Tourism Management, A-905/4,
Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016; [email protected]

Abstract
Human Resource Development (HRD) is that section of management which deals with the main factor of any organisation.
The main purpose of it is to improve the efficiency of the personnel. When a well applied HRD approach is undertaken, it
helps an employee to increase his knowledge and skills. This helps him to deliver quality performance. There are many
issues which can have serious impacts if not rectified. The major issues that are restraining the industry from achieving
high economic value are shortage of qualified personnel, shortage of tourism training institutes, shortage of well qualified
trainers, working conditions for the employees. Policies which can help the employees to work in supportive environment
are also a point of concern. The paper is an attempt to judge the work done by the HRD team of the tourism industry with
special reference to Jet Airways India Ltd. This in turn can enhance the capabilities and motivate them to work more efficiently.

Keywords: Human Resource Development, Jet Airways India Ltd., Capabilities, Productivity, Training and Development.

1. Significance of the Study

HRD has been recently given importance in tourism
industry. For building our nation and organizational
development, there is a need to mobilize the human
resource. Mobilization would include the need to
develop the human resource, their skills, knowledge,
attitudes, so that they can achieve competently the predetermined goals. For developing tourism industry the
primary requirement is efficient and professional managers the second most important point that is neglected
very often is the training of the existing staff to get a
professional outlook. As tourism is a growing industry, there is huge requirement of efficient and trained
personnel to fill various jobs. Tourism industry is basically a service industry where assets of an organisation
can be their human resource. There are varieties of jobs
available for managing various tourist services. Special
attention has to be given on training of existing staff. It
has to be ensured that there should not be any loophole
*Corresponding author:
Anushree Banerjee ([email protected])

in the facilities and services provided to the customer. In

case of a developing country, it will also be appropriate to
study at this stage the volume of manpower required for
activities complementary to accommodation industry
in general and service sector in particular (Rao, 2004).
Indias share of global international tourism is very low
in spite of having a lot of tourism potentials. Our country can have human resource which can help the tourism
industry to flourish and make a mark on the world map
as a favourite tourist destination. We would have skilled
persons to handle this industry right from the level of
waiters to executive level and in case of Jet Airways (I)
Ltd. ground duty staff to flying staff (Report, 200405).
Training programmes should be organised for the
employees to-be so that they could be trained as per the
requirements of the industry. The characteristics of attitude which include flexibility and adaptability contribute
to an employees success in promotion. Technical skills
required for equipment operation and maintenance, personnel management etc. A staff planning exercise can be

Human Resource Development in Tourism Industry in India: a Case Study of Jet Airways India Ltd.

done in order to determine the needs for the required

human resource. Through this, we can forecast easily for
exactly what types of personnel, with what qualifications
or skills will be required. This can help in determining
the finalisation of required training programmes for
the local residents. This will also help in determining
whether there is a need for trained personnel from other
countries and also whether local people are to be sent for
training elsewhere (Rudrabhasavaraj, 2004).

2. Literature Review
The successive paragraphs present a comprehensive
review of literature on the subject matter. In 1982, Rao,
T.V. conducted a survey of HRD practices in Indian
industries. The survey reveals that only 17 out of 53
companies had formal policy focusing on HRD. All in
all HRD appeared to be becoming a significant aspect
of work life in many organizations. Another survey
was carried out by Rao, T.R. to judge HRD climate in
Indian organisations. The environment was not very
good to HRD due to the indifference of employees as
per the survey. The top management in most organizations were not making sufficient efforts to improve
the quality of work life. Rao, P. Punna and Reddy M.
Sudarshan in their compiled and edited book entitled
Human Resources Development: Mechanisms for
Extension Organisations (2001) have mentioned the
importance of HRD for Agriculture Extension. They
realised that there is a need for fresh look at efforts
to build the capacity and capability for HRD in the
emerging areas.
Agarwal, Nair Banerjee in his book entitled Human
Resource Management (2004) has mentioned that the
purpose of this book is to assimilate new insights from
human resource management and behavioural sciences
into established concepts. Prasad, L.M. in his book entitled Human Resource Management (2003) has tried
to place proper emphasis on the human resources of the
organization. It presents the most recent developments in
the field and tries to relate how these developments are
relevant to Indian Companies but it has failed to focus on
HRD and tourism.
Gupta, Shishi K. and Joshi, Rosy in their book entitled
Human Resource Management (2004) have laid emphasis only to the effectiveness of Management of Human
Resources. Kaushal, H. in his book entitled Human

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Resource Development (2004) has made an attempt at

making good this vital deficiency of workable case studies
in management. Reddy, Sumati in her edited book entitled E-Learning and Technology: New Opportunities
in Training and Development (2003) has highlighted
how distance training and education helps organizations
to meet the challenge of organizational change reach
competitive standards and achieve organizational goals.
Distance and online training is considered as an investment and people which helps in meeting pre-determined
objectives.
There is a dearth of research studies on the development of human resources in Tourism Industry
particularly in post liberalization era. The present study is
an endeavour of the author to present the varied dimensions and facets of developing the human resources in
Tourism Industry with special reference to Jet Airways (I)
Ltd. Author has made an endeavour to bring in account
a comprehensive study with regard to HRD in Tourism
Industry. The case study of Jet Airways (I) Ltd. would successfully represent the concept and applicability of HRD
in Tourism Industry in India.

3. Statement of the Problem and

Emerging Issues
The primary concern of tourism industry is the
quality and efficiency of services. In order to achieve
this, each of the components of tourism industry
requires trained/skilled manpower. Being a service
industry, the manpower is the blood of any tourism
organisation. They are the ones who can decide the
fortune of any company. Thus the need to develop
the required human resources in various segments
of the tourism industry in general and Jet Airways
in particular has become imperative.
Shortage of tourism training infrastructure, shortage
of qualified manpower, and qualified trainers, working conditions in the tourism sector are the matter of
concern in the tourism sector.
There is need to employ well-educated and well trained
tourism personnel for achieving higher productivity.
The organisations, who are utilizing the services of
educated and trained human resources, will be definitely more successful than the ones who are not
utilising the services of trained personnel.

Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective | Print ISSN: xxxx-xxxx | Online ISSN: xxxx-xxxx

Anushree Banerjee

Numerous decision-making activities, having their

bearing upon planning, control, investment, productmix, etc., necessitates the involvement of well-educated
and well-trained personnel in the Tourism Industry.
A high quality of tourist services highly depends on
the availability of sufficient human resources (quantitatively and qualitatively).
It is with the above-mentioned imperatives that this
study has been undertaken.

4. Objectives of the Study

To assess the contribution, which can be made through
the individuals who can provide their services to fulfil
the requirement through which we can be known as a
successful destination as a whole.
To acknowledge the issues and problems faced by the
employees of tourism industry.
To rectify the issues and plan according to the needs of
the personnel to enhance the productivity.

5. A Case Study of Jet Airways (I)

Ltd.
5.1 Financial Position of Jet Airways (I) Ltd.
The year 2012 has seen very difficult years in terms of
operation and consequently has shown losses. The main
reason for the same is the high costs of operations and
a number of pliers in the industry. The two main reasons for this decline were: Price of ATF and high rate
of exchange. Crude oil prices continued to be very high
especially in the latter half of the year. In addition, the
Rate of Exchange of the Indian Rupee to the US Dollar
continued to be negative.
USA, Europe has put the airline in difficulty due to
their financial instability. This has put significant pressure
on the financials of airlines. The banks were adamant on
giving any assistance. Airlines tried to hike fare towards
the end of the year, because of some demand supply
imbalance being reduced. The total expenses amounting
to `1,650,160 lakhs in Fiscal 2012 increased by 26% from
`1,307,492 lakhs in Fiscal 2011. The Company has is able
to improve its financial status at the need of the financial year of 2012. In the year 2013, the results can be seen
(Annual Report, 2012).

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The Company has introduced its low fare service

products under the JetKonnect brand to provide its services to the low-fare category also. The company believes
that JetKonnect re-branding will help it to increase credibility and revenues. The reason behind the same is the
improved perception of the consumers which in turn will
help in improving the yields. Airport changes are also
posing a threat for the company. The announcement of
union budget on service tax will have an impact on the
fares. All of these cost increases are being passed through
to the customer and this will preclude airlines from taking
further fare increases, lest the same becomes unaffordable
in the hands of the customer.
As ATF cost represent 50% of the total cost, it has
a major impact on the cost factor and the financial
condition of the airline. The weak status of the Indian
Rupee with the US Dollar is posing a cost challenge.
The inflow of foreign currency is not higher than the
outflow of foreign currency. A major step to recover
from losses is marking the routes which are constantly
making losses and removing operations from those
routes.
The aviation industry all over the world is facing the
financial crisis and so as Jet Airways. The Indian economy
is growing at a good pace in comparison with other markets across the world. It is expected to post growth rates
of 6 to 7% per annum for the upcoming decade. This may
imply that the Indian aviation industry may see growth
rates of over 12%. But, there are few challenges which
can put strain on the profitability of the company like the
increase in foreign exchange.
Jet Airways is having a moderate fleet which is
operating in the difficult environment. The company is
earmarking the loss making routes and discontinuing
them and add new capacity in markets which can improve
the network and increase the revenues. The company
has re-branded JetLite into JetKonnect. This can help
the company to attract the low fare category of consumers which can yield more returns to the company. This
rebranding has seen improved customer satisfaction.
The present study is related to planning for human
resource, training and development, recruitment and
selection, counselling, performance appraisal, career
development, reward system and organizational culture
and effectiveness. Thereby to utilize their potentialities for
enhancing productivity to help improve job conditions
and quality of their work life.

Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective | Print ISSN: xxxx-xxxx | Online ISSN: xxxx-xxxx

Human Resource Development in Tourism Industry in India: a Case Study of Jet Airways India Ltd.

5.2 Findings

Following observations were made based on the survey

conducted on the employees of Jet Airways:
From (Fig. 16), we can conclude that as a whole the
majority of employees of the organisation are not satisfied
in terms of promotions and incentives. The majority of
them feel that the HR department of the company must
be more supportive towards the employees as they are
not getting their promotions on time. The employees also
feel that they are also eligible for incentives as per their

performance appraisals. There should be timely meetings

of the employees with the HR managers with whom the
employees can share their issues.
It is evident from the survey that the employees feel
that personnel of any organisation is to be considered an
extremely important factor for productivity. They feel that
they should be treated more politely by the management
as they are the ones who are actually operating their business. Majority of the employees feel that there is an urgent
need to re-design their organizations. The most required

Figure 1. Promotion.

Figure 4. Required trainings attended.

Figure 2. Working conditions.

Figure 5. Incentives.

Figure 3. Policies related to HR.

Figure 6. Employee satisfaction.

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Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective | Print ISSN: xxxx-xxxx | Online ISSN: xxxx-xxxx

Anushree Banerjee

feature is to provide training to the employees and develop

the human resource. They feel that their potentialities are
not being fully utilized.
The HRD team of Jet Airways (I) Ltd., is helping the
company but the overall performance with regard to
higher productivity has not been so encouraging. The
main reason is the conflict between employees and the
management. Further, organizational culture created
within the organizations is not conducive for sustainable
development.

5.3 Conclusions, Suggestions and

Recommendations
Tourism is an important economic activity as the tourist
visiting a particular country is also bringing along with
them the foreign currency to utilise in the country visited.
The industry has major economic consequences. The industry has the potential of employment generation and it
has been well recognized by the world over. The industry
today is recognized as a major economic contributor. The
tourism industry is facing with many challenges in the
field of human resource. One of the major issues in this
regard is the quality of human resource. The industry is in
dire need of qualified quality personnel.
Today, human resource planning is considered as
the way management comes to solve the ill defined and
tough-to-solve human resource problems faced by an
organization. The role of a HR manager is very crucial as
it involves selection and recruitment of the right person
who can prove to be an asset for the industry. The training and development plans are to be effectively implied so
that the personnel can develop talents and hence perform
effectively in more challenging work situations. An organisation is considered to be successful if it is continuously
trying to improve its product and provide quality services
to its consumers. This requires each and every personnel
of the organization to be professional, able, skilful and
knowledgeable. The organisation should determine the
training requirements. For this, two levels of supervision
can be implemented and both levels of supervision should
be addressed by the managers having the competencies
required for that level.
If the work allotted to an employee is competent enough
in which opportunities are provided and the work draws
enough recognition, the employee will achieve a high level
of satisfaction. The rewards given to an employee may be
monetary or non-monetary. The rewards must meet his

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basic needs. The environment in which the employee is

working is very important. It should be supportive which
helps to build team spirit and shows that employees are
wanted.
The country which has trained human resource can
develop the tourism institutional structure. Many technological advancement can also be done through the trained
personnel. In tourism industry, economic development
can be done only when the environment is good enough,
ready to change at all levels as per the requirement. This
calls for educated and literate people. The main goal is
to make the required changes in the policies and strategies so as to develop human resource in tourism industry.
Collaboration of all the countries is the need for the next
century. HRD system has to be groomed to its fullest
to achieve competitiveness on international platform.
Quality of manpower is the major challenge faced by the
tourism industry.
To promote tourism industry, government of India
has shown some interest, but unfortunately the steps
taken are not enough. The government has realized the
importance of the skilled personnel at different levels. For
this, initiatives are being undertaken to train and develop
human resources. The government should look after the
needs of the human resource by setting up a committee
consisting of HRD professionals and professionals from
the tourism industry.
The importance of ensuring high standards of
quality and efficiency in tourism services to develop
international tourism is well-recognised. It is particularly important in the case of developing countries
intending to promote tourism as an instrument for
economic development. It can, however, be achieved
only by initiating specific measures for HRD in various segments of the tourism industry. The industry
requires trained professionals at each and every trade
like hotels, restaurants, travel agents, tour operators and
other providers of tourist services. Security guards,
taxi and coach drivers and other ground level workers need to be trained so as to make them skilled and
presentable.
Inadequate infrastructure is another factor of much
concern for Indian tourism. It is observed that the
Department of tourism is not being able to convince the
Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission to
grant adequate funds. These funds can be utilised in developing infrastructure. To upgrade the human resources, we
need to educate the personnel regarding career planning,

Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective | Print ISSN: xxxx-xxxx | Online ISSN: xxxx-xxxx

Human Resource Development in Tourism Industry in India: a Case Study of Jet Airways India Ltd.

career development and career counselling so that they

may become aware of the general phases of their growth
and development.
We need to realise the importance of the industry as
soon as possible so as to help it in flourishing. It is recommended that the Government of India should form
an HRD Board, which should encourage the researches
upon increasing potentiality of human resources. It
should take many productive and aggressive steps for
the promotion of HRD. The need of the hour is to tackle
grassroots realities of HRD and then take some harsh
measures to infuse a new blood in Jet Airways (I) Ltd.

7.Are you aware of employees policies of your

company?
Yes
No

Annexure 1
Questionnaire

11.How do you explain the number of trainings

attended so far?
Many
Sometimes
Never

Name:
Age: 1825 2635 3645 4655
above 55
Income (P.A.): below 2 lac 25 58 811
above 11
Designation:
Years of experience:
1.As per the years of your experience, how do you rate
your company in comparison to other airline companies?
1 2 3 4 5
2.Are the working hours in compliance with the labor
laws?
Yes
No
3. Are you due for your next promotion?
Yes
No
4.Are you satisfied with the promotions given to you
by your company?
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Cant say
5.If there is an HR issue, does the management take
serious steps?
Yes
No
6.Are you satisfied with the working conditions provided to you by your organization?
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Cant say

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8.Are you satisfied with the policies of your company

related to the employees?
Yes
No
Cant say
9.Do you feel the management should be more serious towards their employees?
Yes
No
10.How many trainings have you attended?
<2 35 68 810 >10

12.Do you think trainings play an important role in the

overall development of an employee?
Yes
No
13.Does your company have HR meetings with you
attended by HR managers where you can discuss
your issues?
Yes
No
14.If yes, in what duration does it takes place?
Yearly
Half-yearly
Quarterly
15Are you satisfied with the incentives you have
received till date from your company?
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Cant say
16.Overall, how much satisfied are you with your
company?
Satisfied
Dissatisfied
Cant say

6. References
1. Annual Report, 2012. Jet Airways (I) Ltd., Mumbai.
2. Rao VSP, 2004. Human resource management, New Delhi:
Excell Books.
3. Report 200405. Ministry of Tourism, Government of
India, New Delhi.
4. Rudrabhasavaraj MN, 2004. Human resource management
manual. Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House.

Journal of Tourism: A Contemporary Perspective | Print ISSN: xxxx-xxxx | Online ISSN: xxxx-xxxx