Rajasthan is everyday imparting a new meaning to words like ‘DEVELOPMENT & PROSPERITY‘ in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s genre. The relentless efforts of CM Raje and her team have started reaping sweet fruits for the people of Rajasthan. The recent example is the Tourism sector as Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) which has been struggling with losses from quite a long time has also started generating profits. Rajasthan is a famous and very well-known tourist spot and still the state’s government Tourism body was just on the verge of sinking. But, the news of RTDC converting into a profit-making entity is very rewarding as the body now seems to be finally getting back on the track. This happened because of the charisma and eutaxy of Vasundhara Raje’s team who introduced innovative marketing and various other tactics to boost the performance of RTDC.
It brings a lot to honor the dedicated team of CM as they employed various efforts like innovative marketing, strict monitoring of services provided to tourists and boosting the morale of their employees. Such constructive measures have never been taken by the previous Governments and thus there were no positive results. Never the less, the things are not same now and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is managing the potential of the state to gain a competitive advantage over other states. With the progressive use of the leadership skills of CM, there has been a quantum jump in the bookings of RTDC hotels, whether it be offline or online. The RTDC properties also seek a rapid increase in revenue from bars, which in turn supports their profit expectations for the year.
This major turn-around in the sector of RTDC is aiming towards multiplying the profit twice by the year-end. An RTDC Official said, “To begin with, the employees had a major grouse at not being paid for months. Last month, they took home salaries for three months. The salaries of all employees for July and August were paid on September 27, and the September salary was paid on the 30th. The RTDC has decided to pay the employees on the last day of the month. This has to a large extent lifted the low morale of employees.”
It is purely the dedicated efforts of the department with the valuable guidance that they have been successful in introducing reforms to yield results. Reforms like installing CCTV cameras at 15 major units across the state, to curb the lackadaisical attitude of employees at the workplace.
“For the first time, 21 parameters in the hotel matrix were being monitored on a regular basis. The fear of being watched at all times did wonders to the cash flow of RTDC. As a consequence, bars that had a turnover of Rs 1.5 crore in 2015 may see the same escalate to Rs 1.8 crore in 2016. This is likely to touch Rs 3.5 crore by the end of 2017,” said an official.
The transparent and efficient management of the system has inflated the number of online bookings as well. As a result, the hotel booking segment, which registered an income of only Rs. 50,000 per day last year, is now earning RTDC Rs. 3 lakh on a daily basis.
Ashutosh A. T. Pednekar, managing director, RTDC, has personally inspected more than 70% of RTDC units and concluded that “This is a big organization and we are looking at each unit separately with a profit-centric approach. We are a people-centric agency. The organization has an illustrious past and great potential. The hotels, tours, travel, bars, events and online visibility are all segments dealt as separate entities.”
Now, the whole sector is just waiting for the arriving tourist season to target a revenue rise of up to 125% in the coming months.
