Competitiveness in Service Sector: A Case of Hotel Industry in India

Competitiveness has been a topic of research in the manufacturing and related sectors since the early 1990s. However, recently some researchers have started to examine the tourism and hospitality competitiveness, both conceptually and empirically. This article looks at one of the important sectors of the national economy, at least from its potential for development perspective: the hospitality industry. The research area is related to finding out the main related factors of competitiveness in this field. This research attempts to identify the essential aspects of competitiveness in the hospitality industry. The objectives pursued refer to: discovering the degree to which the concept of competitiveness is understood and capitalized on by the managers in the hospitality industry; identifying a set of factors considered decisive in raising the competitiveness of Indian firms in the hospitality industry; identifying the strategic concerns of firms operating in the Indian hospitality industry, in order to establish the connection between strategy and the competitiveness of the firms belonging to this sector.