Palladium Hotels increasing visibility in India
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Palladium Hotel Group is getting good response from the India market considering the situation and pace of recovery. “The demand has been there and the feedback I have from the market is good. Even though considering the visa issues to Europe, Spain is doing good. We started getting the demand when the market started in April, the demand got from 0 to 100 percent,” Sandra Polo Canudas, Asia & MEA Commercial Director, Palladium Hotels, said recently during a trade event in Mumbai. Palladium Hotel Group is represented by Global Destinations in India.
Comparing the figures from 2019 and 2022, Canudas said that the figures have overpassed the numbers from 2019. Globally Palladium Hotels are over the 2019 figures but the contribution of the arrivals from the India market is balanced with that of the 2019 numbers, she added. But we are looking forward to overpassing the numbers from India market in the coming months, she opined.
Canudas said that the focus is on increasing the visibility of the Palladium Hotel in India market. “India market started to re-open during May-June of the last year. We opened some of our facilities and hotels at the end of June and mid-July. It is practically over the season for the market; therefore, we are now focused on the visibility part. If everything was in place and people knew, the response would have been faster, but due to less visibility and new openings, the response was slow. But we are expecting the next year to reach the signature levels,” she opined.
During the interaction with media, Canudas highlighted the issues that majorly pulled back the demand and the primary one was the visa approvals. She said, “After all the heat, the demand was running like waterfalls, but the concentration of the clients was more immersed in the confirmation of the visas and getting approvals. Though we tried our best to convey what they needed, but the clients were not ready for something new after all that they had to go through”.
Having said that, she added about targeted market segments that Palladium Hotels is looking forward to in 2023, viz. clients preferring premium and luxury. For the past two years, Palladium Hotels have tried worked in formulating the marketing propositions for the company. “We are in the exact path of what Palladium hotels want to achieve, and it has always been premium and luxury-oriented”.
On the planned marketing strategies, she said: “This year, we are seeing that the marketing strategies have transformed totally from the pre-pandemic methods. We are trying to do different things now.” Also, Palladium is sending games to the trade fraternity representatives to engage and let them know about the products in a different way, not in the way of webinars or presentations that they earlier followed.
On MICE, Canudas said that the Group is looking at MICE, events, and weddings. “We are both in MICE and weddings, but we mostly believe in the FITs where we can cater tailor-made programs,” she said adding that the Group is focused on a 50-60 pax group and not a 500 members group. “We have had many successful weddings as well, and we have a separate department for Indian weddings. We have informed about our requirements to our partners. But we are inclined towards catering exclusive boutique experiences and smaller groups who want to have premium quality services, and not large group events or gatherings,” she concluded.
By Kuhelika Roy Choudhury