New Delhi Geneva-headquartered Kempinski Hotels SA, which pulled out of its partnership with hospitality firms The Leela Hotels and Ambience Group, is looking to re-enter the growing luxury tourism market in India. In an interview, Amanda Elder, the hotel chain’s chief commercial officer, who was in Delhi this week, said Kempinski was keen to move to Delhi and Mumbai first. Edited excerpt:
Are you planning another innings in India?
We definitely want a lot more presence here, now that covid is over, we would love to have more foothold in India. We are always on the lookout for hotels that might want to partner with us so that we can manage.
We have had very successful partnerships in the past. Kempinski is well known for that partnership. Would love to hear and learn about what we can do here. China has been a wonderful driver of trade for the whole world, but China aside, for our company, India is the next most important global market. We want to enter two major cities, Delhi and Mumbai, and we always want to start from there. And it was the same with Beijing and Shanghai in China. The same has been the case with Berlin and Munich in Germany. It is perhaps more clear that there may be an opportunity in major cities, but we will or will not stop ourselves from considering other areas. We realize that many of our travelers, for example German, Swiss, Austrian, would prefer to have our hotels in the outskirts of India where everything is famous.
Do Indians consume as much luxuries as the Chinese do?
Indians like to explore, they are not afraid to spend money and are curious people and they enjoy luxury. There’s a lot of opportunity there. We have so many destinations around the world that I know the Indian traveler really enjoys, or wants to start exploring and is really the driver. We want to cater to Indian guests.
Are Indian travelers at par with others in terms of room booking and cost?
India will be around the eighth or ninth country in terms of number of nights. For us, Indians are traveling to our Seychelles, Turkey, Istanbul, Berlin, Singapore and Dubai locations.