Several foreign hotel chains are looking to enter Indian market
In the next two years, A string of global hotel chains including Rotana, Meininger, Jumeirah and Six Senses is coming up to enter the country due to attraction of growth prospects here.
Kaushik Vardharajan, partner managing director, Asia Pacific, at hospitality consultancy HVS said, by looking up at the global situation right now, for these brands, China and India are the two largest markets.
Though how bad the numbers look, everybody continues to believe that India has the potential. The current focus of these brands is India, as they are already present in China. They are in examining stages to launch a mix of their portfolio, largely in the mid-market segment.
Through tie ups with unbranded hotels operating in good locations, Berlin-headquartered Meininger, owned by travel Major Cox & Kings is taking into consideration operating leases and management contracts in India.
As per Navneet Bali, the company’s chief executive, India is one market no one can choose to ignore. He added travel market is expected to double in the next seven-eight years from 850 million travellers; it is still relatively ‘unhoteled’. He further added, because Indians by nature are price sensitive and value conscious, our philosophy will fit right in.
As hotel management companies are positive about the Indian market, but choosing a right associate here is proving to be a question for them. Choosing the partner has been tough after the company decided to enter India about two years ago, according to Aman Aditya Sachdev, senior vice president for South Asia and Southeast Asia at Rotana Hotel Management Corp. He added things had slowed down by the time they entered the market. That has made us work a slight harder.
To find out long terms partners in India is a difficult task and because developers here come from a residential development background, they anticipate fast returns.
Rotana is looking at opening 20 operating hotels in the next decade, and India is extremely under serviced, added Sachdev. Focus is on the mid market segment of the country, looking at the significant growth potential by the Middle-East hotel chain.
As per HVS, 34.4 per cent of the proposed branded hotel supply between 2012-13 and 2017-18 is through mid-market brands. Vardharajan of HVS however mentioned that presently they are going through wait and watch situation for such companies, whereas they are charting plans for the country, their actual entry will only happen after elections.
Jumeirah Group, which is Dubai based , a member of Dubai Holding, are planning to open properties in Mumbai and Goa.But as per macroeconomic scenarios, agenda to bring to a close deals are getting longer and harder.
Existing Indian brands like Citrus and Keys which are on an expansion drive will give huge competition to the new hotel companies. For instance, Citrus Hotels and Resorts, freshly inaugurated five hotels in new micro markets in India.
Source: Economic Times
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