GOLDEN TULIP HOTELS TO FOCUS ON MID SEGMENT MARKET

Golden Tulip Hotels, which has seen rapid growth over the last one year, notching an average occupancy of 62-65 per cent across all their properties, strives to maintain its growth trajectory in 2015 as well. Vimal Singh, Managing Director, Golden Tulip Hotels - South Asia, opined that the year looks promising with the launch of four new properties under 4 star/5 star categories in the first two quarters of 2015.

While the group has successful establishments in both metros and tier I cities, the plan is to shift focus to the emerging mid segment market, Singh added. “Tier I cities are almost saturated and we are shifting our focus to the emerging mid segment market. The biggest advantages that have made tier II cities gain ground is that they offer opportunities to expand business operations, wider markets and cost advantages through lower operational and maintenance costs, lesser overheads and even lower salary costs. Availability of fresh talent further encourages the development of multi-delivery centres in these tier II cities. All the tier II cities that we operate in have shown tremendous growth potential such as Chandigarh, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, among others,” he said.

He further stated that the group’s primary focus in India has been corporate and leisure business since Golden Tulip’s existing properties cater to these segments. However, the company is also looking at opportunities to operate in cities offering religious tourism such as Shirdi, Singh added. “We are in the process of big expansion over the next two to three years. We are looking at target markets in South and North East India with great business potential, as well as Nepal and Bhutan. We are looking at cities such as Shirdi, Rajkot and Chennai,” he elaborated.

Speaking about the guest profile at Golden Tulip properties in India, Singh explained that, at the moment, the hotels see an average of 10 domestic guests versus one international across the properties. However, a spike has been seen in these figures, especially across the resort properties. The largest source markets into the Indian establishments are US, UK, Germany and France, he added.

When asked about their marketing strategy to build brand visibility, Singh informed that, with the growth of digital media, the company is interacting with the digital audience a lot.

“Golden Tulip has a strong establishment internationally with its 1350 hotels across 53 countries and 1,30,000 rooms and we promote it through participation in local and international tourism and trade fairs,” he concluded.