Adaptability is key

Sarovar Hotels’ Regional Heads talk about the response they are getting in terms of business travellers and how they will look at M!CE to drive occupancy in hotels.

Sanjeev Shekhar Regional Director – West

Though our resort property is doing great in India as international travel is restricted to Maldives and Dubai, our rates in the corporate sector are not going to rise as foreigners not coming in. We would be able to reach 70-80 per cent occupancy in the summers but the rates will really suffer. Also, there are restrictions on the number of people allowed at events, so M!CE travel will not be coming in a hurry, corporates have started moving a little bit, however PSUs will take off faster than the others. Also, WFH for the corporates will continue.

Ajoy Balkrishna Regional Director – North

Currently under the North region umbrella, we have around 47 operational hotels, and out of 50, about 8-9 are in North. Our growth in the North has been the fastest and the highest, we have mostly been focused on business destinations but in the last couple of years we have started opening in our leisure segment. COVID has made us change our strategies and adaptability is the key word now. In addition to the business segment, we have started focusing on weddings, leisure, workcations and staycations. 2021 is going to be a great fight back year and we will be back to normal.

Swarup Datta Regional Director – South

There are certain directives given by the local governments for the gatherings, that depends upon the case load of the area. Small conferences and meetings still do happen, however the WFH and Zoom call meetings scenario has curtailed travel which hits us in a big way. However, to increase footfalls we are looking at various cost-effective options. We are also working on providing safe spaces for people to visit. Our hotels are highly dependent on international travel and once it opens up we will look at the M!CE segment to drive occupancy in hotels.