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BOOB BUILDING
The place and how it plays out with other places
D. MURALI
Geography might not have been the subject you liked the most in your schooldays. However, geography is important when it comes to putting up a building. More so, if the construction is for the hospitality business. “Geographically, a location has two attributes that need to be examined before a hospitality business can be developed: absolute location and relative location,” writes Larry Yu in ‘The International Hospitality Business’ ( www.jaicobooks.com).
Absolute location is something that you can pinpoint precisely with the help of coordinates. “It is also known as the site, which refers to the physical characteristics of the place, including geological features, climatic conditions, bio-resources, and cultural and economic characteristics, such as the ethnic makeup of the local population, their religious beliefs, and the level of living standards,” explains Yu.
External features
In contrast to such an analysis of ‘internal’ characteristics of the place, relative location looks at the ‘external’ features. Such as “Proximity to major tourist markets and easy accessibility for tourists.”
Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps, says Eric Bentley. Adapting it location, you may say: ‘Absolute’ is about all that is in the place, while ‘relative’ is all about how the place plays out with other places.
“Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder,” exhorts an inspiring quote of John F. Kennedy.
In hospitality, necessity and economics can bring a whole geography onto your plate. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the scarcity of local suppliers forced the purchasing directors to utilise an enterprising team of global suppliers, informs Yu, in one of the many case studies.
Footprint
“The Saudi Big Mac represents a truly international effort, including sesame seeds and onions from Mexico, buns made of Saudi wheat, Brazilian soybean oil and sugar, beef patties and lettuce from Spain, pickles and special sauce from the U.S., cheese from New Zealand, and packaging from Germany.”
It may perhaps be a similarly enlightening exercise to trace the geographic footprint of a meal at the neighbourhood restaurant, if not a supermarket shelf!
Yu devotes a chapter to ‘hotel development and design’.
He begins with a thought of the Prince of Wales on how you can save 1.34 litres of water per individual flush by ‘banging a brick’ into the cistern, the way Hilton has done.
Success of these high-profile initiatives depends on ‘the unglamorous business of reducing environmental impacts step by step, pound by pound, flush by flush,’ he adds.
Down-to-earth problems of construction, as you’d appreciate, begin with land. Clear land title can be a major concern for hotel developers “in some developing countries and East European countries,” rues Yu.
43-month job
“Land in these countries has no legally recognised owners. For instance, two-thirds of Mexico City’s residents have no proper deeds. In Indonesia, onerous titling regulations add 10 to 30 per cent to the cost of buying land. In Peru, getting a deed used to require 207 bureaucratic steps divided among 48 government offices, and usually took 43 months.”
Aren’t we luckier, you may wonder?
Educative read.
BookBuilding@TheHindu.co.in
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