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| C'wealth hospitality sector is upbeat |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Oct 21, 2009, 11:24 IST |
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Fighting odds stacked against them, they are racing against time to meet the requirement targets to accommodate the guests. Hospitality sector in the national capital region nonetheless is upbeat at the prospect of good business year ahead.
The sector in the capital has already begun experiencing the pressure due to the upcoming sporting extravaganza, say industry experts.
"We are expecting more than 15 per cent growth next year because of the Games. And it's not just the three-week event but delegations and tourists would start arriving well ahead of the event," says K B Kachiu, vice-president, Carlson Hotels (Radission).
We have added additional rooms and have created facilities specially for serving guests. The heat is already on," says Kachiu.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, 40 per cent of the hotel rooms have been completed for the Commonwealth Games 2010 in the National Capital Region Area.
There was a target of making available 9,597 rooms during the mega-event in the NCR region - Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad. And construction of 3,952 rooms has been completed.
Anajali Chatterjee, GM (marketing), The Lalit, says,"We are eagerly waiting to host the Games and hoping it will have a substantial impact on the hospitality sector. There is already a significant increase in NCR in hotel infrastructure. We will soon have meeting with our tour operators, business partners to work on the expected rise in demand of rooms during the Games."
There are issues which are creating problems but we (hotel industry) are confident to accommodate all the people visiting the country next year, she adds.
Apart from hotel rooms, many bed and breakfast accommodation will be available. About 3,000 rooms will be available from the bed and breakfast or home-stays, according to the tourism ministry.
During the Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held from October 3 to October 14, 2010, it is estimated that additional 20,000 rooms in Delhi and 10,000 in the NCR zone would be required to cater to the demand during the sporting extravaganza.
India's foreign exchange earnings from the tourism sector are likely to grow by 20 per cent to USD 16.91 billion in the next two years, primarily due to tourists inflow expected during the Commonwealth Games.
"We have witnessed a substantial loss of around 25-30 per cent drop in the deluxe room segment from November last year to March due to recession and terror attacks but things have improved after April. We are ready to host the guests during games and there will be no shortage of rooms," says Vilas Pawar, CEO, Choice Hotels.
Bharat Bhushan, director, Hotel Association of India,agrees, "Things are improving for the hotel industry after March. We can't quantify the amount of losses we made last year but I think the Commonwealth games will certainly give a major boost to the hotel industry."
The Mumbai terror attack and the economic slowdown obviously had an impact but 2010 Games will be a catalyst for a boom in the tourism sector, he adds.
According to global consultancy firm Deloitte, occupancy in hotels was down by 14 per cent throughout 2008, and average room rates rose 4.5 per cent. "In 2010, India will host the Commonwealth Games for the first time, and hoteliers here will be hoping to emulate the success of Melbourne, which was the host in 2006," it said in its report, 'Hospitality Vision-Global Performance Review'.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) recently surveyed 100 hotels in different categories with turnover ranging from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1,400 crore found that the domestic hotel industry is back on the recovery path.
Hotels have also hiked tariffs by 15 per cent to 25 per cent on the back of expectation of a rise in tourists numbers this winter.
Five star tariffs,which had fallen to an unprecedented low of Rs 6,000-8,000 this summer, are now upwards of Rs 12,000 as hotels try to make up for the business lost since early last year.
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