The Director General of Foreign Trade, via a notification, has included hotel and tourism related services as the 14th service under the Services .Export Promotion Council(SEPC). Till now, applications to DGFT for issue of import license required the applicant to be a member of FIEO. However FIEO membership did not give tangible benefits to the members as the organisation did not take up issues regarding the hotel and tourism sector with the government. The lobbying efforts of FHRAI has brought about this development. The hotel and tourism sector will now be able to avail benefits that the Government plans to confer on sectors regarding foreign exchange. Now, membership of FIEO will be changed to membership of SEPC as a requirement for applications made to DGFT for issue of import license by hotels and tourism related service providers.

Center for Mountain Tourism & Hospitality Studies, HNB Garhwal University, Uttarakhand recently organized a national conference on " Indian Hospitality Industry- Contemporary Issues" at Rishikesh. Sponsored by AICTE, this two-day conference was supported by Indian Hospitality Congress, Indian Housekeepers Club and Kukreja Institute of Hotel Management.
Mr. Dinesh Khanna, President FHRAI stressing the need of such conferences said, "This is the most opportune time for such forum, as the industry is going through a boom and hospitality is being reckoned as the highest foreign exchange earner and employment generator of the country."
The conference looked at issues like relationships between hotels, airlines, surface transport, travel agents/ tour operators; suggest measures to enhance guest satisfaction and examine contribution of operation and management practises in the development of quality services in the hospitality industry.

The Institute of Hotel Management Hyderabad, recently found a mention in the Limca Book of Records by making the biggest bouquet ever! The bouquet, 25 ft tall and 17 ft wide was made with flowers, palm leaves and bamboo asparagus. This extraordinary feat will be featured in the Human Story chapter of its 2009 edition.
The record breaking bouquet was made on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Andhra Pradesh Hotels Association, held at Sanjeevaiah Prk, Necklace Rd. Hyderabad. Teachers and students of IHM -H joined hands to make this lovely bouquet.

The Executive Committee of FHRAI met in Trivandrum, Kerala on 24-25th March at the Leela Kempinski Kovalam Beach resort to deliberate upon issues impacting the growth of tourism in the country. The Committee discussed the recent move of the Government to bring Hotels in the ambit of Factories Act, 1948; the import of marble; zero import duty on wine and liquor and issues related to it; the Union Budget 2008-2009, the fixation of Tariff by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for hotels of 3 star category and above, with 50 or more rooms and heritage hotels; and increase of FAR and ground coverage ratio for hotels in the NCR of Delhi. Above all, the Committee discussed the grant of infrastructure status to the hotel industry under Section 80 1A of the Income Tax Act 1961, which, if agreed to will solve most of the problems faced by the hotel industry.