Udaan Hotels and Resorts
#goodstay #goodfood #goodpeople
In a very short time, Udaan Hotels and Resorts has been able to establish its brand in the Darjeeling and Sikkim region. Nishi Kant Agarwal, Managing Director, Udaan Group talks about the company’s expansion plans to strengthen its hospitality base and experience in the popular tourist region.
Udaan Hotels operates a chain of pure vegetarian hotels in Darjeeling and Sikkim. After its humble beginning in 2017, with the opening of its flagship hotel, Udaan Woodberry in Gangtok, Udaan Hotels today is proud to operate a collection of eight hotels and resorts, with another two opening in 2023.
Their hotels are conveniently located and are pure vegetarian leisure hotels. Guests can find themselves surrounded by a distinctive array of tourist attractions, splendid views, eccentric antiquity stores, and a multitude of tea plantations. The hotels are well designed with modern facilities and unique local essence. “We are also very careful about the hygiene factor in our hotels. All our hotels are well appreciated and frequently visited by domestic tourists. Recently, we have ventured into the luxury segment with the opening of our new hotel, The Himalayan Suites and Spa, a luxury hotel in Darjeeling,” informs Agarwal.
Following the major challenge due to the pandemic in the past two years, Udaan Hotels has witnessed tremendous growth and performed very well in 2021–2022. Currently, they are operating eights hotels of which three are in Darjeeling – Udaan Himalayan Suites and Spa, Udaan Dekling Resort and Udaan Nirvana Resort, two in Gangtok - Udaan Woodberry and Udaan Alpine Resort, two in Pelling - Udaan Olive Hotel and Udaan Pine Crest Hotel and one in Siliguri- Udaan Clover Hotel.
Udaan Hotels intends to grow into a chain of 25–30 hotels and establish itself in more cities. Agarwal shares, “Most of the properties will be located in popular leisure destinations with high domestic tourist traffic. The group’s vision is to make it the best vegetarian chain of hotels. As we understand comfort and hospitality very well, our motto is to make every stay a memorable stay, and that’s why our slogan is #goodstay #goodfood #goodpeople for our guests.”
Darjeeling and Sikkim are endowed with incredible natural beauty, and the majority of tourists who want to visit them always have an itinerary that includes Darjeeling, Gangtok, Pelling, Lachen, and Lachung, making an incredible circuit. So, to cater to this demand, Udaan Hotels has properties in Darjeeling, Gangtok, Pelling and Siliguri.
Udaan Clover Hotel in Siliguri makes for a great choice for a transit stay for the onward journey to Darjeeling and Sikkim. Conveniently situated in the business district of Siliguri, this property puts travellers close to attractions such as the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and interesting dining options. However, each of their properties is unique in its way and located differently to make it convenient for the guest to cover beautiful places around. All the hotels have an in-house vegetarian specialty restaurant ‘Grains’.
On the marketing front, Agarwal mentions, “We use all the digital tools on social media and also participate in many travel fairs such as OTM, SATTE, TTF, and TTJ Travmart to stay connected with our B2B partners. As we understand that sales and marketing is an important factor for any company to create awareness for any product, so we use different marketing channels for the promotion of our hotels. We also have our sales team in some major cities of the country.”
In recent months, Udaan Hotels has received accolades from a variety of groups, including ‘Fastest Growing Hotel Chain,’ ‘Best Boutique Hotel Chain in North Bengal and Sikkim,’ and ‘Best Hotel chain of Darjeeling and Sikkim.’
“This year has been very positive for the tourism industry and the demand for leisure tourists has significantly increased. We are expecting very strong demand in the coming months. On the expansion front, we regularly search for unique locations and soon we will be opening hotels in more cities. The success of Udaan Group is entirely attributable to its belief in the principle that every customer is God, as well as its commitment to working with honesty, sincerity, discipline, and hard work,” concludes Agarwal.
The heart of incredible India, Madhya Pradesh possesses wealth of prehistoric art painted on the walls of rock shelters
In November 2016, a report appeared in many news platforms that petroglyph rock art at Daraki-Chattan (hillock) near Bhanpura in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh is the “world's oldest rock art” and is almost 2 to 5 lakh years' old.
There are several such findings that have showed how wealthy Madhya Pradesh is when it comes to rock art.
While the World Heritage Site of Bhimbetka is well-known, Madhya Pradesh has many other equally glorious examples of ancient art. Indeed, rock art has a unique beauty – the stylised deer of Hathitola, the great bison of Adamgarh, the mythical beast of Bhimbetka, the vigorous and playful – but what makes these paintings truly valuable is the link they forge with a human past as distant as a half-forgotten dream.
In 1958, the archaeologist Vishnu Shridhar Wakankar happened to be travelling by train from Bhopal to Itarsi. As he gazed out of the window at the landscape of green fields and low hills, something caught his eyes. A series of rocky outcrops were jutting out in startlingly unusual shapes on a low hill in the near distance. The archaeologist got off the train at very next station and made his way up the hill. What he discovered were Bhimbetka rockshelters- today, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the most eminent examples of pre-historic art in the world.
Bhimbetka is under 50 kms southeast of Bhopal on the National Highway 69, which makes it a comfortable day trip even for travellers with limited time. The town nearest Bhimbetka is Obaidullaganj, 6 kms from the Highway Treat Hotel and restaurant, which is located at the foot of Bhimbetka Hill.
Here the paintings show men, women, boys, girls, infants, dancers, hunters, cattle herders, charioteers, weapons and decorative motifs and offer insights into the way of life and the environment, of that era. There are various animals and hunting scenes depicting rhinos, bison, deer and even camels.
Scholars have also found rock shelters on the Betwa River's banks decorated with several images, including the hunting images, hunting elephant and of bison.
The Vindhyas that rise and fall in bursts of dense green across Bhopal, Raisen, Sehore, Vidisha and Chanderi districts of Madhya Pradesh contain a vast network of rock-shelters- more than any other region in India. Apart from this, many places in Pachmarhi, Adamgarh, Mandsaur and Rewa are adorned with beautiful rock art paintings.
Over times these soft sandstone hills were carved into shelters so ideally suited to habitation- with floors and ceilings and dimensions of just the right size that you need only look at them to understand why these were the most popular habitation 'complexes' of prehistoric times.
Jungles of Ratapani near Bhopal are home to some of the oldest and unique rock art. Ran BhaisaChittauri in Ratapani is Bhopal's best kept secret, which has one of the largest single rock paintings. Located near Dahod Dam, the rock art galleries in Kathotiya andRan BhaisaChittauri have several paintings, which belong to Mesolithic as well as Neolithic age.
Another example of this art can be found at Chaturbhujnath Nala. Situated in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary near Bhanpura of Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh, Chaturbhujnath Nala Rock Art Shelters, named after Chatur-bhujnath Temple, are considered the longest rock art gallery in the world. This site was discovered in 1977.It is now under care of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).This site is home to around 2,510 paintings on 800-metre-long site. These paintings offer a glimpse of the everyday life of the then native inhabitants of the area and how it progressed with time. This is a depository of rock art images in 12 different styles and time periods, starting from the Upper Palaeolithic period (50,000 – 12,000 years ago) to early historic period.
According to research, these paintings were done not at one go but over centuries and are representative of the evolving human ability to depict and document their lives through.