Report from the India Hotel Expansion Summit | 19-20 May 2011
The India Hotel Expansion Summit, organized by Noppen took place on May 19-20, 2011 in Mumbai. With 120 attendees the event brought together government representatives, industry experts and members of the international community to discuss the pressing question of how to expand India’s hotel industry.
Opening the event on day one was Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur who gave us the honor of inaugurating the event and gave a fine opening speech into the hospitality sector. This was followed by a speech given by key speaker Mr. Nakul Anand, President of the Hotel Association of India and Executive Director of ITC Ltd. He gave an insightful speech into the statistics and trends of the hospitality sector in India. His speech was well received amongst the delegates as it included a benchmark for comparing China and India market sectors. Another key speaker, Mr. Vithal Kamat, Executive Chairman & Managing Director of Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd, explained the reasoning behind his investment in green hotels. He spoke in detail of the steps needed to be taken to be successful, emphasizing that design and construction are most important when building a green hotel. He stated that one must invest in innovative systems and technologies that allow you to control the consumption of natural resources, which in turn will reduce operating costs for the years to come. He concluded his speech with four points as to why one should invest in green hotels. Firstly, the guests feel that it is their responsibility to help the green movement as it is for a good cause; this gives the hotel an advantage over other brands. Secondly, the hospitality industry is perceived to generate large amounts of waste, but since green hotel’s staff is well trained, they minimize the wastage on their own. Thirdly, if you do not adhere to the above practices, the local authority or law of the land will compel you to incorporate them in the near future. Lastly, you become responsible for sustainable development of the hospitality industry and the future generation will bless you for your consideration for maintaining a greener planet. His speech was thorough and the delegates enjoyed the detailed advice and suggestions that he provided. “It was really a useful summit for all. Wish to join it again next time” Jeypur Art.
The most revered speech came from Ms. Jyoti Narang Chief Operating Officer – Luxury Division, Taj Hotels, Palaces & Resorts. She was a key speaker on day 2 of the event and her speech was eagerly anticipated by all attending delegates as she was due to give a talk on enhancing guest experience; and she did not disappoint. She gave an excellent presentation on customer expectations and how understanding customer behavior would enhance guest experience. She touched upon the differences between developed destinations and emerging economies and how there is contradicting customer behavior between the two. Delegates found three main points of interest in her presentation, how to ‘identify a target audience’, ’look at their lifestyle’ and ‘develop a hierarchy of needs’. She ended her speech by summarizing that hotels need to understand customer lifestyles to create and establish customer needs and expectations. They should use this information to convert their product and service design hence creating a brand proposition. She also stated that one needs to create an innovative feedback loop to understand and enhance your hotels for the future. Furthermore, on day 2 the global hospitality market was discussed by Mr. Sudeep Jain, Executive Vice President of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. He too was a key speaker at the event and made an interesting point about the fact that India (the whole country) has less hotel rooms compared to a major city like Beijing, China. He mentioned that key Indian cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore have a long way to go to match up to their international counterparts but it looks promising and means only one thing, there is potential for growth. He spoke of the fact that the market is concentrated in the upscale and luxury markets, within a handful of cities and with only a few hotel owners or operators. However, with government initiatives, there is bound to be accelerated growth. There are campaigns like ‘Incredible India’, major infrastructure developments (such as airports and highways), tax incentives and 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) allowed in the hotel and tourism industry. “Nice, informative, decent networking”, Mahindra Chawla
Other notable speakers came from the Hotel Association of India, Marriott International, Pentair Water India Pvt. Ltd., KONE, SpaceBiz, Prem Nath & Associates, Zatti Arredamenti Snc, Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts, Swarovski Lighting Business, Senyuan Furniture Group, dwp, ABB, Copaco, Electrolux, Parsvnath, Grohe, and Aqua Designs India Pvt. Ltd. “It is a commendable effort to bring developers, operators and vendors on a common platform.” WYNDHAM Hotels
In addition to all this, Electrolux used this event to launch their global 3D marketing movie and it was amazing. It was highly enjoyed by all the attendees and was perceived as really powerful and showed Electrolux means business. It was an excellent showcase of technology and innovative ideas to brand and market their products.
Noppen would like to express special thanks to the India Hotel Expansion Summit sponsors and supporters; Pentair Water, Zatti, KONE, Grohe, Electolux, Senyuan Furniture Group, Angelo Po, Pepsi Co, Swarovski, ABB, Copaco, SpaceBiz, Lasvit, Tai Ping, ILID, Yamaha, Aqua Designs, Ving Card and Gessi, as well as the high-quality attendees who came together to make this a very successful and informative event.
