Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
Belmond, a hotel and leisure company operating high-end hotels, trains and river cruises around the world, is eyeing India for expanding its hotel portfolio in Asia and is exploring Mumbai, Delhi and Goa for the same. Speaking on the sidelines of the recently held Belmond Media Champagne High-Tea in Mumbai, Andrea Filippi, executive director, Worldwide Sales, Belmond stated, “For the time being we will be exploring Mumbai, Delhi and Goa and will be expanding through ownership and management contracts with a preference for the latter. In today’s times, in management contracts you need to be an investor along with the owner and this would be our preferred way to break into the market.”
Sharing the reason for selecting India for the brand’s expansion, Filippi added, “We have a diversified customer base with some of the strongest markets being North America, UK and Europe. India’s centralised location makes it ideal for attracting our existing customers from the US, Europe.”
Presently, Belmond has a presence in Asia with properties in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Apart from India, Belmond is also exploring other new markets like Vietnam and Mainland China.“ In the past four-five years we started developing the Asian market and we are seeing that Asia is growing at a much faster pace than other markets. We have been developing Japan for 20 years, but India is a new market and interestingly there is a much higher level of brand awareness in this country considering this is the first time we are doing an official event and have not been advertising as well,” mentioned Filippi.
Belmond has been receiving an increasing number of Indian travellers to its properties worldwide. Officially, the company entered the India market last year through Heavens Portfolio, which offers representation services to unique travel experiences throughout the world. “My main mission is to grow the number of outbound Indian travellers. While my colleague will be developing the product portfolio and talking to potential investors,” he mentioned.