Accor Group plans to bring more brands into Indian market

Our brand strategy has shifted to being ‘client-centric,’ says COO — India, S.Asia

June 01, 2019 10:36 pm | Updated June 02, 2019 01:10 am IST

Accor Group has drawn up plans to bring international brands to India and expand its luxury, lifestyle and premium brands portfolio, says its chief operating officer — India and South Asia Jean-Michel Casse.

How is the hospitality sector doing in India vis-a-vis your hotels?

India’s hospitality industry has witnessed tremendous growth. In the last year, the industry has witnessed the highest occupancy and average room rate (ARR) in a decade, thus, continuing to show promising progress.

This is true across segments, from luxury to premium and economy.

The opportunity is immense, and this has enabled us to further develop properties and bring in more Accor brands to India.

The arrival of the Raffles brand in Udaipur and Jaipur is a testimony to the flourishing market for luxury brands. Our brands and properties are also currently witnessing similar growth.

The mid-scale and economy segment, which caters to both leisure and business travellers, is also on the rise.

For example, Novotel has also experienced positive growth. Last year, we launched our 20th Novotel in India and are in the midst of launching our Novotel20 campaign to celebrate this. Also, our economy ibis brand has experienced great occupancies and high ARRs.

What is your plan for the next five years, including keys, investment and properties?

Accor globally is an asset- light company. Our growth is led by densification, which is a key development strategy for Accor on the back of strong market demand with opportunities to deliver quality brands across segments.

Accor’s approach overall, on its brand strategy, has shifted from ‘product centric’ to ‘client-centric, by which it means focusing more on serving a customer in all their varied personas and changing needs.

In April, we announced the arrival of the iconic luxury Raffles brand in India with two properties — the Raffles Udaipur and the Raffles Jaipur. While we continue to drive our mid-scale and economy portfolio aggressively, we are focused on expanding our luxury, lifestyle and premium brands portfolio in the country. Banyan Tree, SO/, SLS, Delano, Mondrian, Hyde and Tribe, amongst others, are some of the brands which have the potential growth and audience in the Indian market.

We are also interested in the development of branded, private and serviced residences in urban and sought-after locations in the country. We also have the Fairmont Mumbai under development and are in active discussion for coming up with a Fairmont in Goa.

Your plans of having 1,500 keys in five years... are they on track?

As shared earlier, currently we have approximately 5,000 keys (rooms) in the pipeline and under active development. We are on track in terms of increasing the number of rooms in the region.

When will Raffles and Banyan Tree open to guests in India?

Raffles Udaipur with 101 lake-facing rooms is expected to open by mid-2020 and Raffles Jaipur by 2022.

For the Banyan Tree brand, we believe that it has growth potential in the Indian market and we are in discussions to develop the brand in the country.

After quickly opening many hotels, everything seems to be silent on your side?

Currently, we have 25 hotels and approximately 5,000 keys in the pipeline and under active development. In 2019, we opened two properties — Mercure Goa Devaaya Retreat and ibis Kolkata Rajarhat and will open the Grand Mercure Ahmedabad GIFT City with 158 keys. In 2020, we have Grand Mercure Bangalore OMR, Novotel Mumbai International Airport and ibis Mumbai LBS Road in the pipeline.

Initially, you were focussing on Novotel and Ibis; what is your stand on Mercure and Pullman?

At Accor, our strategy is to densify in markets of India. Novotel (20 properties) and ibis (19 properties) are the most visible brands due to the sheer number of hotels.

We develop brands based on the requirement of the market and what travellers are demanding.

Our focus is to expand the brands in the luxury, premium, mid-scale and economy segments.

For Pullman and Mercure, we continue to focus on increasing the number of hotels depending on the demand from our guests and the city as well.

Will you be entering tier II cities?

Our strategy is to densify in key cities with our mid-scale and economy brands Novotel and ibis, respectively.

We also are developing properties across the luxury and premium segments in the region.

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