DRIndian Hotels Company Ltd. (IHCL), owners of the Taj Group of Hotels, held their annual sales mission in Mumbai and New Delhi in August. Introduced last year, the event brought together general managers and directors of sales and marketing under one roof to interact with trade partners and bring them up to speed on hotels, unique experiences and new destinations.
IHCL Sales Mission 2018 held at Mumbai and Delhi brought together general managers and directors of sales and marketing under one roof to interact with trade partners
“India is a very important source market for our overseas hotels and also a critical recipient market because we have a large footprint in our home country,” says Renu Basu, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, IHCL.
The sales mission had 57 participating hotels, including eight from overseas – palace hotels, safaris, city hotels and resorts across India, Bhutan, UAE, Malaysia (Langkawi), UK (London), Maldives and Sri Lanka. Hundreds of travel agents, tour operators, and conference and wedding planners attended the event.
In February this year, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa opened in Andamans. IHCL has announced the opening of another eight new hotels in 2018: Vivanta by Taj Connemara in Chennai will be re-launched and repositioned as a Taj; Taj Aravalli Resort & Spa Udaipur; Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa Uttarakhand; and three hotels under the Ginger Hotels portfolio in Madgaon, Surat and Patna.
South Asia’s largest Indian hospitality company in terms of market capitalisation has announced the signing of six new hotels in 2018. Ginger Hotels in Visakhapatnam and Jhansi; Taj in Lonavla, Vivanta in Khatra, Jammu and Kashmir; it won the bid for The Connaught New Delhi; and is entering Mecca in Saudi Arabia with a Taj property.
The hotel at the Bengaluru International Airport is also undergoing expansion. Few weeks ago, the company signed up for developing a greenfield 108-key Vivanta at London’s Heathrow airport (opening 2021), the second IHCL hotel in the British capital, besides the iconic St. James’ Court Hotel and Suites near Buckingham Palace in central London.
According to its vision document, IHCL is targeting the top 15 GDP centers in India and overseas it is evaluating markets that have a large Indian diaspora.
IHCL is bullish on the weddings segment as it brings in revenue on many fronts – room, F&B and ancillary services. “The weddings business is recession proof, because it’s so very personal and tied firmly to our cultural ethos,” says Basu.
Taj has been synonymous with hotel weddings since seven decades now. The Taj Mahal Hotel Mumbai has always been the number one choice for wealthy families who have celebrated the nuptials of their successive generations at the iconic property.
Taj Wedding Studio (TWS) was launched last year and IHCL has been closely associated with Vogue Wedding Show for many years now. “TWS is a great platform for curating and offering all the unique experiences that only a Taj can offer. The platform is meant for B2C patrons and B2B partners to access information related to our capabilities to host weddings. This segment is growing 20 per cent YoY and impacts room and F&B revenue in a big way.”
Globally, the millennials’ spending power is forecasted to surpass that of the boomers within a decade. “Millennial is the magic word.” concurs Basu. The hospitality industry at large has embraced the rise of the millennial traveller. Millennials are the only generation to report an increase in future travel spending this year. Taj Hotels’ audiences are slowly changing to add the age group starting 25+, from the earlier 35+.
“We are observing a change in the consumer profiles with a growing need for experientials. The value proposition for our guests has shifted from a pure product play, to providing a tailored level of service and unique experiences,” says Basu.
The relevance and influence of technology in the hospitality sector has never been more pronounced than it is today. With guests looking to their social media circle and digital platforms to research and book a stay as well as communicate with hotels, digital has become a buzzword for hoteliers globally.
The experience begins with the company’s digital touch points — the new tajhotels.com and the mobile app. Through the company’s new social media command centre, Taj.Live, organically engaging with a wider audience throug mni-channel trend tracking and analysis, and identifying opportunities is possible.
IHCL has adopted a ‘digital first’ strategy to address changing consumer preferences and woo the millennials and digital savvy customers especially so since it sees massive opportunity in scaling its Ginger Hotels portfolio where competition is fierce from traditional players like Lemon Tree, Royal Orchid, Sarovar, Pride, Golden Tulip, Ibis and even from tech disrupters like Airbnb and Oyo.
“Digital sales is growing but we need to balance direct sales approach with digital outreach. People research online and buy offline and sometimes vice versa. Our digital support teams have reduced response time to online queries from what took 24 hours to under 15 minutes which is a major achievement in itself. We need to use technology as an enabler to record and deliver on each guest preference.”
IHCL’s new MD & CEO Puneet Chhatwal has revamped the brand architecture: Taj (luxury), Vivanta (upscale), Ginger (budget), Expressions (350+ restaurants – iconic brands like Golden Dragon, Thai Pavilion, House of Ming, Wasabi, Souk, Kharavali, Southern Spice, Masala Bay; Khazana luxury lifestyle stores; Jeeva Spa) and introduced a new brand SeleQtions (a collection of ‘named hotels’ that are unique and one-of-a-kind).
Chhatwal has devised a three-pronged strategy spanning over the next five years to increase IHCL’s operating profit margins by eight per cent. Driven by the improving revenue per available room (RevPAR) trends, the company’s 3R (Restructure, Reengineer and Reimagine portfolio) strategy, called ‘Aspiration 2022’ includes exploring new markets, expanding existing properties, monetizing non-core assets, optimizing costs and simplifying the group structure to grow the bottomline.
The hospitality behemoth has a market capitalisation of more than Rs. 16,000 crore and more than 145 hotels across four continents. “The biggest contributor to the topline continues to be the Indian guest followed by those from the US, UK, Germany, France, and the Middle East in that order,” informs Basu.
