Accor, Europe’s biggest hotel group which entered India almost two decades ago in 2004, has 56 operating hotels in the country. It includes brands such as Fairmont, Raffles, Mercure, Grand Mercure, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Sofitel, Pullman, and Novotel across economy, mid-scale, premium, luxury, and ultra-luxury segments. “Let me put this in comparison. Indonesia has a population of 280 million people compared to India’s 1.4 billion. While we have 140 operating hotels in Indonesia, there are 56 in India,” says Andrew Langdon, senior vice-president development Asia, Accor. “Two-hundred operating hotels in five years’ time, that’s the vision,” he adds.
In an exclusive interview with FE, Langdon talks about the group’s performance in the Indian market after the Covid-19 pandemic, expectations for the new year and expansion plans for the country, among many others. Here are the edited excerpts from the interview:
Covid was harsh for the hospitality sector. How has the India market performed post-Covid?
It has been extremely well. The Indian market has experienced the same kind of rebound that we have seen in West Asia. The bounce back was far quicker, far stronger than any of us had anticipated. The experience across Asia has been pretty similar, whether they are city hotels or resorts. December and January were the best months for many of our hotels in their history. The room rates were 20-30% higher than what they were pre-Covid. We not only recovered but exceeded our occupancy levels.
The revenue in many of our hotels across Asia was record high, and so was the gross operating profit.
This happened because I spoke about the revenue but there is also cost, which was at one of the lowest levels. It is because our biggest expense in hotels is labour. But because of Covid, many hotels had to reduce their staff by 50%. However, when things recovered, they couldn’t find staff to hire. So, come December and January, hotels were running with 20-50% less staff.
In the last quarter of 2022, the regional division comprising India, Africa, Middle-East and Turkey witnessed a 73% rise in RevPAR compared to 2019. What are your expectations for the India market in 2023?
In Asia at large, a lot of travel in Q4 last year was from Asians. So, the domestic market remained strong, and then there was Asian travel, such as Singaporeans travelling to Thailand, or Malaysians travelling to Vietnam, etc. We also saw international travel.
Another interesting thing was that the demand was coming from ‘FIT’ (free independent traveller).
The experience was similar in India, with people having mostly travelled domestically. The corporate market bounced back, and so did the FIT leisure market, but the MICE market not yet. We expect the tour leisure market to pick up from the second half of this year.
The Chinese tourists comprise a significant market in India, as they do in Asia in general. Although they are not travelling yet, we expect them to start to travel at some time later this year.
Read More at https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/our-hotel-count-in-india-will-be-same-as-china-soon/3039022/