‘Hotel projects in India have longer timelines than elsewhere’

IHG’s renewed focus on growing travel and tourism in India comes at a time when the country’s hospitality sector saw a record recovery in FY23.

“India is one of our priority markets. As we’ve seen over the past year, the demand for hotels is exceeding supply and this is a market we need to think about now and double down on the investments we’re making here and the plans we have Is. “To build India for the long term,” Kenneth McPherson, IHG’s chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa (EMEAA), said in an interview.

Although the hotel project construction period—from when they are launched to when they are finished and when the property opens—is longer in India than in other EMEA markets, McPherson said, adding that, however, these challenges are largely similar to those in other high-growth markets.

In 2021 a top IHG official told Peppermint In an interview that the company will bring its Regent, Kimpton, Vignette Collections and Voco brands to India; However, so far, only two hotels of Voko- an upscale lifestyle brand- have been signed here, which will come up in Uttarakhand’s Jim Corbett Park and Gurugram. IHG now has 43 hotels under five brands in the country, adding four hotels to its Indian portfolio from December 2021.

When asked about the company’s slow growth in the area compared to rivals such as Marriott and Wyndham, McPherson said IHG’s growth rate from 2016 to the end of 2022 in terms of the number of hotels operating was about 10%. . And 11% per year in terms of number of rooms, giving the country about 7,500 rooms.

“Our desire is to bring those brands to India, but we want them to be in the right places and markets for the right customer segments. But we think it’s a sustainable development.

From a performance perspective, the company said it has surpassed 2019 levels in terms of its operational performance across almost all its properties in India, and that hotels are starting to see a return of domestic corporate business and some level of international corporate. have been traffic too. The company expects a sharp increase in the average daily rate — a metric used to measure hotel rate performance — at a faster rate than the business is growing.

“We have a healthy growth trajectory over the next three years in the brand segment, which is going strong in the family of mainstream essential brands, the Holiday Inn brand,” he added.

Over the next two-three years, the company plans to add 52 more hotels in South-West Asia, of which 42 hotels will be added to its portfolio in India. Globally, in Q2 2022, its total revenue in India is expected to exceed 2019 levels, with occupancy levels increasing from 60% in Q1 to close to 75% in Q2 this year.