Radisson Hotel Group plans to expand to 200+ unique locations in India

India's infra growth and tier-II and III markets to drive demand

The Radisson Hotel Group plans to expand its footprint to more than 200 unique locations across India in the coming years, driven by rising demand from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, infrastructure growth, and multiple opportunities in leisure and religious travel markets.

 

With the global hotel brand already having 130 operational hotels in India across about 114 cities, Nikhil Sharma, managing director (MD) and chief operating officer (COO), South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, told Business Standard that the growth in infrastructure — from 75 airports to 150 airports, and again to 250 airports — has prompted the company to want to be present in every terminal airport location.

 

This follows the company signing a 350-key hotel under its luxury lifestyle brand “Radisson Collection Hotel” in Navi Mumbai International Airport, in partnership with Hill Crest Hotels and Resorts. Currently, the company has its presence near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, under Radisson Blu, an upper upscale hotel brand. Sharma further added that he believes the growth opportunity near Navi Mumbai’s new airport to be bigger than that of Delhi’s Aerocity region, with it being “one of India’s fastest-developing business and lifestyle destinations”. This hotel property is expected to open by the first quarter of calendar year 2030 (CY30).

 

"We want to have 12 Radisson Collection hotels in total by 2030. This is the fourth one (referring to Navi Mumbai’s signing) that we are doing, so eight more to go. Radisson and Radisson Blu are our core brands, which will continue to drive the growth for us going forward, in India, while Park Inn by Radisson will be another brand that has the potential to drive growth for us in the mid-scale,” Sharma said.

 

So far, the Brussels-headquartered company has around 70 hotels under development in the country. On its target of having 500 hotels by 2030, Sharma noted that about 50-60 per cent of hotels would be in tier-2, -3 and -4 cities. According to its release, the Radisson Hotel Group continues to be the largest hotel operator in a tier-1 market like Delhi-NCR while over 50 per cent of its portfolio is in tier-2 and -3 markets.

 

"We have seen a RevPAR (revenue per available room) growth of 8-9 per cent overall compared to last year, and I see that consolidating even for next year. I believe, in some markets, it (RevPAR) will be record numbers again this year,” Sharma said.

 

Meanwhile, K B Kachru, chairman, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, highlighted that this 350-key signing on Monday is the hotel firm’s largest signing in terms of keys to date. He highlighted that with huge headroom for growth in the country’s hospitality industry, and several branded rooms being added in recent years, India is on track to achieve one million rooms by 2030.

 

This year, the Radisson Hotel Group started on a strong note with about 20 hotel signings till April. A total of 59 hotel signings have happened in the last 18 months.

 

"We are exploring branded residencies. While we will do branded residencies, it will never be the mainstay. Branded residencies would be around 4-5 per cent of the total portfolio for us in the country,” added Sharma.