Man has always liked to travel, and today, this habit of man has helped spur a whole industry into rapid growth and development. The growth of domestic and international tourism as well as business has contributed greatly towards the growth of the hotel industry. Hotels have been constantly expanding and innovating to meet these demands. Travel and tourism have got a thrust because of easy, accessible and fast modes of travel and this has brought about a change in the attitudes of tourists from all over the world. The hotel industry is big business today and it has grown by leaps and bounds during the past few decades. Indian Star hotels like The Taj, Oberoi, The Welcome Group, Holiday Inn etc. have become world famous. Hotels on the highways are mushrooming all over the country, making traveling by road a pleasant and exciting experience.

The hotel industry accommodates tremendous variety in terms of size, clientele and location. Star hotels comprise several specialized departments such as housekeeping, food and beverage, accounting, marketing and engineering.  Hotel Management comprises eight major areas : Catering, Front Office, Housekeeping, Accounts, Sales and Marketing, Engineering, Personnel and Forecasting. Therefore, hotels are in constant need of trained staff to efficiently run these departments.

A variety of workplaces offer interesting, glamorous and lucrative openings for hotel management graduates. These include Hotels and restaurants, Institutional catering firms, Airline catering firms, Cruise ship management, Club management, Hotel and catering institutes, Tourism associates, Suppliers of hotel services and equipment, Catering departments of railways, banks, armed forces etc.

Once you get an entry, sky is the limit! Depending on performance, a person may expect regular promotions. A chef, for instance, is a highly paid professional and many chains pay upto Rs 50,000 a month to their chefs.

All over India there are more than 200 institutes which provide training for Hotel Management. The most sought after are the courses run by reputed hotel chains. The well-known institutes in this category are the Taj group's Indian Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM) at Aurangabad, the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development at Delhi etc.