Category Archives: Hotels

In a bid to encourage tourists and promote tourist destinations, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has upgraded 23 of its resorts in Maharashtra. The Corporation has also successfully completed take-over of 98 per cent of the restaurants linked with all the resorts across the state that were previously owned by private players. Abhimanyu Kale – Managing Director, MTDC commented, “Tourism industry in Maharashtra has tremendous potential given the rich historical and cultural heritage of the state. Having said that, we have observed that there is a surge in demand from a lot of local travelers, travelers from outside Maharashtra from other states and even foreign tourists who are keen to visit the various destinations across the region. And to compliment the same, we have undertaken and successfully completed the project of revamping 23 resorts across the state which took around six months and was done in a budget of around INR 1 crore.”      The state of Maharashtra has some unexplored and attractive tourist destinations which consist of beaches, forts, hill stations, heritage and sanctuaries. And MTDC has its resorts located across Pune, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Nashik, Ratnagiri and even Mumbai. MTDC puts a lot of impetus to manage and improve the infrastructure to meet global standards and hence they have taken the initiative to upgrade their properties.

Lords Hotels and Resorts continues its mission in bringing smiles by entering in to a strategic tie up with Save The Children India – a most trusted NGO that has changed the lives of more than 1 CRORE Indian Children since 2008.   Lords Group has placed donation boxes in front office at all its hotels. The amount collected every month is donated by respective hotels to the NGO. The NGO helps children with the donation money and provides them access to quality education, food and shelter. Commenting on the occasion Pushpendra Bansal, COO – Lords Hotels and Resorts said “At Lords we aim to create enduring value in the lives of children coming from marginalized communities. This tie up will surely help them leverage future opportunities.” Rakesh Mathur, Director and Advisor, Lords Hotels and Resorts further added “We aim to enrich lives of underprivileged children for a better future through this endeavor”.

In a recent interview, Rishi Puri, Senior Vice President – Operations & Development, Lords Hotels & Resorts, says, “We are looking at ‘MICE-W’ segment for our expansion. Lords will be opening properties in Goa, Morbi, Kurnool, Rajkot and Bharuch in the same category. All these properties are expected to open by end of this year.” Lords Hotels and Resorts will be aggressively looking at ‘MICE-W’ Hotels and has chosen a few locations in the country that it would like to tap as the segment is bound to do well and the great Indian Wedding continues to be a major source of revenue for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Discussing about their rapid pace in the Indian market, Suhail Kannampilly, CEO, The Fern Hotels & Resorts, says, “We have set up a target of opening 100 properties by the year 2020. We are already on our way to achieve this. In the current year, we will open 25 properties. We have already opened 10 and by the end of this year, we will surely achieve this milestone.”

Jean-Michel Cassé, Chief Operating Officer (COO) – India & South Asia, Accor says, “Looking forward, the market is optimistic about H2, with no new supply coming in major markets like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. These markets will continue to benefit from constraint demand, especially in months of November and December which will have a high demand of weddings and MICE, apart from corporate transient movement. Overall India growth should continue to see a positive growth over LY, with robust growth in the last two months of the year.”

After opening a new property in Jaisalmer — Kalyan Bhawan, WelcomHeritage is all set to open four new properties by end of 2019, reveals Sanjeev K Nayar, MIH, General Manager, WelcomHeritage. He says, “Presently, we have 34 operational properties and four new ones in the pipeline. We are also looking forward to tap the wedding segment. Tadoba Vanyavillas Resort & Spa, in the forest reserve of Tadoba near Nagpur will open in September. Inderpura Resort in Udaipurwati, the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, and , Mount Valley, has been planned as a resort in Ranthambore in the foothills of the Aravalli range will hopefully be launched by October. The fourth property—Badi Kothi will be a heritage property in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, which will be open by end of this year.”

The award-winning JA Beach Hotel at JA The Resort, Jebel Ali Beach, Dubai, has completed its 2019 makeover and has reopened for business from September 1, 2019. The resort has completed a renovation of the entire building façade and the interiors giving their rooms a fresh new feel with glass balconies that overlook the beach. It is an all-inclusive resort where guests can book a variety of all-inclusive package meal plans. JA The Resort is also preparing to open its third hotel – JA Lake View hotel – which is in the same premises as JA The Resort. It will feature a signature Indian restaurant by Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna of Michelin star acclaim. This property will be operational from September 22, 2019 and will have 348 rooms. Situated on a one million square metre plot of landscaped gardens, JA The Resort features a huge 800-metre private beach, a 104-berth private marina and a 9-hole, and par 35 championship standard golf course, horse-riding, swimming, etc.

Indiatourism Kolkata, Regional Office (East), MOT, Govt of India, presents Career East-2019, a 4-day hospitality career festival to be held in Kolkata in association with the Institute of Hotel Management, Kolkata. All educational institutes located in the states/UT of West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Andaman & Nicobar islands, which run a regular Hotel Management degree/diploma course of 3 years of longer duration are eligible to participate. The event will be held at IHM Kolkata.

According to a recent report by JLL, the largest number of hotel room openings in the country in the first half of 2019 were in the state of West Bengal, which welcomed 926 rooms. These keys were part of the four new hotels that opened in the state, of which ITC Royal Bengal alone opened 490 rooms. The report also suggests that Gujarat had the maximum number of hotel signings, with 18 hotels and 1593 rooms, during the same period. Giving a detailed overview of the market, Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Business, JLL, said, “Occupancy wise, a market that remained a bit challenged in the last first half of the year was Ahmedabad. Goa saw a dip, but that’s not a sustainable challenge. The main reasons for this were the grounding of Jet Airways and a prolonged election season because of which a lot of travel either got deferred or cancelled. Also, there was more outbound travel than travelling within India.”

MAYFAIR Hotels and Resorts has opened its 11th Resort- MAYFAIR Lake Resort in Raipur. The Group now runs 11 properties across 9 destinations- Bhubaneswar, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Goa, Gopalpur-on-Sea, Puri, Rourkela, Kalimpong & Raipur. The resort is a 124-room property offering Executive Rooms, Deluxe Suites and a Presidential Suite. MAYFAIR Group widely acknowledged and admired for its architectural concept of low rise properties that highlights plush greenery, was founded by Dilip Ray in 1982, with its first property at Rourkela.  Over these years, the Group has earned a unique niche for itself in the Hospitality industry for its personalised services, luxurious accommodation, designer properties and eco-friendly environment that welcomes guests to a truly unforgettable experience. The property is designed to cater to the requirements of the growing MICE Segment and will be a key player in the development of a new Central Indian Travel Circuit. It has a number of indoor and open air venues with capacities of hosting 15 to 2000 guests. The hall with elegant decors and exotic wedding venues, that exude regal charm, makes it an ultimate address for Destination-wedding and MICE events, promising a flawless picture-perfect event experience. Conveniently located the property is just a 15 minutes’ drive   from Swami Vivekananda airport and is well connected by Road and Railways also.