Infrastructure growth fuelling hospitality sector in tier 2 cities: Sunjae Sharma

Hyatt Hotels plans to add almost 1,000 rooms in India next year as it expects demand to grow significantly in the country.

“Demand in India has only increased. Our focus is on significant openings as part of growth strategy for next year,” Sunjae Sharma, vice-president, India operations, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts told The Hindu.

The hotel now has about 7,000 rooms in the country with 28 hotels across 18 destinations. Next year, the luxury hotel chain expects to operate with more than 7,900 rooms in 32 hotels across 20 destinations.

“Our Hyatt Centric brand is big part of our strategy. We will have another Hyatt Centric coming up in Goa, then a significant opening in Gurgaon. We also have integration of our Two Roads portfolio that we have just signed up. So, we will have two hotels coming into our fold from there — Alila Bishangarh and Alila Goa. So, growth is going to be very significant next year,” Mr. Sharma said.

Plans for 2019

In 2019, the firm will launch several properties, including Hyatt Regency Kochi Malayattoor (100 keys), Grand Hyatt Gurgaon (442 keys), Hyatt Centric Candolim Goa (167 keys), Hyatt Regency Dharamshala Resort (89 keys) and Hyatt Regency Jaipur Mansarovar (250 keys). “For Hyatt, India is very important market. Our first hotel [Hyatt Regency] opened here in 1983. From a global perspective, India is third only to the U.S. and China in our pipeline. So, Hyatt has big plans for India,” he said.

Talking about the hospitality industry, Mr. Sharma said, “The hotel industry is in a very interesting state. [The year] 2018 has been very good. It is a year where we saw a lot of progress and consolidation. We think it was good platform for the years to come because hospitality, as an industry, has really grown and so have the supporting industries such as aviation.”

Stating that the hospitality industry was only seeing positive signs, Mr. Sharma said the growth in infrastructure was also fuelling industry growth in tier 2 cities as “businesses are expanding to these cities and tourism is picking up, [too].”

He pointed out that business was growing with impetus across several aspects, “which is very interesting because the basket of businesses is very varied now. We see a lot of opportunities… no particular challenge,” he said. He added that the business had changed over time in India. “Earlier, it was more of international, but domestic travel is slowly but surely taking over.” While the ratio of business and leisure travellers depends on the destination, about 60% of customers are domestic travellers.

“…people are looking for experiences now. It is not only based on particular hotel or a brand, it is about what experience they can provide which is not only a room or a beverage,” he said.

On competition from Airbnbs and homestays, Mr. Sharma said, “It fuels more tourism. It is something that will help the business at large. We are doing what we have to do to create those experiences and get our guests to have that loyalty with us.”