STAR net gains for travel agents
During the recently-concluded eighth Annual Starwood Hotels Sales Expo in Delhi, Dhananjay S Saliankar, Regional Director, Starwood Sales Organisation-South Asia, spoke to about the company’s growth strategies for the India market.
Enlisting more retail travel agents
As part of strengthening our sales distribution in India for the company’s global hotel network, Starwood Hotels & Resorts will try to enlist more retail travel agents into its fold. Starwood Hotels has created a dedicated tool – STARnet – for small and medium travel agents. The traditional agent whose core competence was ticketing, wants to now shift to hotel bookings. STARnet will help them to get the best commission rates and print their own vouchers. They can book 1,200 hotels globally by joining this programme. STARnet is catching up with retail agents in a big way. It is still very minimal, but we are looking at strengthening this segment further in the near future. However, the DMCs and the wholesalers will continue to
We see an evolving Indian traveller who is venturing out not just in regular destinations but also to new destinations and is keen to stay in luxury hotels.
Dhananjay S Saliankar Regional Director Starwood Sales Organisation-South Asia
drive the B2B business for the company. Personalising travel in India
The US-based hotel company rolled out the Starwood Personalised India Travel Programme towards the end of 2013. The group is currently in the process of enlisting hotels for this programme across the globe. The idea is to identify at least a number of hotels in each destination, which can deliver customised services for Indian guests. Similarly, the international hotel company is also keen to grow sales of luxury hotels such as St Regis, W, and luxury collection from India. The strategy is also to drive more business into luxury brands internationally. We see an evolving Indian traveller who is venturing out not just in regular destinations but also to new destinations and is keen to stay in luxury hotels. In addition, Starwood is expanding its support structure in India, with a new sales office set to open in Ahmedabad next month. The group will continue to drive growth from Delhi and Mumbai, while more business would be generated from new areas like Gujarat and Kolkata.
MICE and wedding markets as growth drivers
We are aiming to tap the MICE and Indian wedding market. The MICE segment is growing at a phenomenal rate and we want to have a fair share of that pie. A 2,000strong incentive group from Amway India will be travelling to Toronto in July. Sheraton Centre Toronto will be playing host to this group. Destination weddings is another major area for Starwood Hotels in India. The company’s beach hotels are quite popular for Indian weddings. Sheraton Hua Hin Resort & Spa alone hosted 70 such weddings in the last four years.