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Nina Varghese

Resorts in Sri Lanka, Thailand on the cards

Chennai , March 7

Club Mahindra Holidays, one of the lifetime holiday majors in the country, is set to market Club Mahindra products in the US market by April this year, according to Mr Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd.

The company also plans to enter the `fractionals' business, following the trend in the evolving US market. Fractionals is the new buzzword in leisure market. (According to Time magazine calls fractionals the new millennium term for timeshare in upscale projects.) Large resorts are offering stays for a specific period for the entire family for a fraction of the cost of full ownership. Mr Ramanathan said that this product is tailored for high net worth individuals who buy into a vacation time at a premium location.

He said that the Club Mahindra product would offer fractionals in palaces, havelis and heritage homes.

Mr Ramanathan said that the decision to enter the US market was taken after a year's research. The company has developed a new timeshare holiday product, which is being targeted mainly at people of Indian origin.

The product is an extension of the traditional time-share package and is positioned as a holiday for the extended family, as most Indians from the US would like to spend quality time with their families.

The package will also include some breaks in the US. To facilitate this, Mr Ramanathan said that the company has invested in some US inventory (rooms).

The company will have offices in New Jersey; Washington, DC; and Maryland. The average package would be priced at about $9,000.

Mahindra Holidays has sales offices in Dubai and Kuwait.

Besides, Club Mahindra will soon move overseas and is planning resorts in Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Maldives, he said.

The company is gearing for its overseas expansion and has appointed Mr Ulrich Wolffram, an hotelier with international experience, as Head of Operations to manage the existing resorts and open new ones, Mr Ramanathan said.

Today, the domestic market for lifestyle products has grown and more people are buying holidays, he said. The company is improving service levels at the resorts. The company has invested about Rs 1.5 crore in the first phase of a CRM (customer relationship management) package. In the second phase, the investment would be anything between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore, he said.

Mr Ramanathan said the company is going for a food and safety certification across resorts. Another area that the company is concentrating on is cuisine.

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