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The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), which is eyeing a dominant position in the metros and key regions in the country, has further strengthened its presence in the Delhi-NCR with the opening of the Connaught, New Delhi. The hotel is part of IHCL’s SeleQtions brand, launched in 2019.
Overall, the hospitality major has a portfolio of 212 hotels, of which 40 hotels are in the pipeline. With the addition of the Connaught, IHCL will have 15 hotels in the Delhi-NCR region including two under development.
Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, IHCL said, “We want to be the dominant hospitality player in key metros and regions of our home market. We are expanding with all the brands. In the last three years, 66 new contracts have been added and some of them have also opened as they were conversions.” Talking about the SeleQtions brand, Chhatwal said, “We think SeleQtions provides an excellent platform for individual hotels to become a part of larger system of distribution, network and sales. It is also an opportunity for owners, who realise that when bad times come, if you are not affiliated to a strong group, then getting back up on your feet is more difficult,” he added.
The hotel industry, which was badly hit by the pandemic, is witnessing recovery largely fuelled by domestic leisure tourism. “The demand is mostly being led by domestic leisure tourism segment. In terms of business travel, we have begun seeing demand coming from certain sectors, that have bounced back or were less vulnerable during this pandemic. I believe once the vaccine is freely available and the number of cases see a further dip, demand will start coming back faster than we think across all segments,” he added.
The industry has sought infrastructure status and lower taxation in the upcoming budget. Chhatwal said the infrastructure status will enable the industry to get easy access to capital helping it to strengthen the margins.. He added that some form of stimulus is also required to generate demand and that there was need to promote domestic tourism while capitalising on the government’s “Dekho Apna Desh” initiative.
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