The Residence: Home away from home
The Residence by Cenizaro offers guests a new online experience to explore the group’s four luxury hotels. Represented in India through Outbound Konnections, it is aggressively tapping the India market.
Inspired by a mission to enrich every guest experience, one person and one moment at a time, The Residence collection is renowned for creating relaxing environments that reflect the destination, complemented by bespoke hospitality that makes every guest feel as if they belong.
Anjum Lokhandwala, Founder and CEO, Outbound Konnections, that represents The Residence luxury hotels, talks about how it promotes the product in the growing luxury outbound market in India. “Mainly operating in the B2B market, we promote the resorts in the traditional and emerging markets through road shows, trade fairs, tele-marketing, co-branding, direct sales through meeting B2B agents and familiarization trips.”
She adds that while the focus has always been the leisure market, they will now also target the incentive, weddings and the events segments.
The company recently concluded a three-city roadshow in New Delhi, Mumbai and Nagpur and hosted agents over cocktails and dinner to thank them for their support. “The response was very good as The Residence brand is well established in the market now. Nagpur is an emerging market for us. This year, we have planned familiarisation trips for the trade. We also plan to reach out to tier II and III cities and conduct product training. We are looking at substantial growth as the market is now familiar with the brand and its services,” Lokhandwala adds.
Observing some trends in the market, she says that India is now a mature luxury market and the number of high net-worth traveller’s are growing at a fast pace. “Family holidays and honeymooners are the trend and they are seeking luxury getaways. Indians are now more focussed in terms of choosing the destination they want to travel to, and from the destination the right products they want to experience. The Residence being a luxury product has huge potential in this changing Indian market,” she adds.
Lokhandwala says that destination- wise there is an increase of almost 20 per cent in terms of Indian arrivals. “These numbers look to double up in the coming season,” she predicts.
Slated to expand the collection further are four new openings: a resort on the island of Bintan in Indonesia, a second resort in Maldives, and two in Tunisia – one will be a desert resort in Douz which is the gateway to the Sahara, while the other will be a historical gem in the UNESCO World Heritage- protected The Medina of Tunis.