India May Soon Don ‘Regional Hub’ Status For Global Hospitality & Travel Cos

Savio Rodrigues - Mumbai

International companies in tourism and hospitality are fast seeing the benefits of choosing India as their regional hub for south Asia to spearhead expansions and operations. Apart from the few that are already based out of India, more are expected to toe the trend, chiefly citing operational ease and cost effectiveness.

While Thomas Cook, Hyatt International, GET Lionel and InterContinental have already set up operations for their south Asian operations in India, global travel and hospitality conglomerate Cendant is next in line to make the country its centre for operations in this region.

Industry watchers forecast that the present upswing in South Asia’s travel and hotel business is spurring development activity in this region. Further, offices stationed in Dubai or Singapore are proving to be unfeasible in comparison to India, now that air access to the country and infrastruture within is no longer a major concern.

According to Ratnesh Verma, area director, Hyatt International, “On the global scene, India and China are the two most emerging markets. Initially, the south Asian market was fairly embryonic on the worldwide competitive barometer; therefore operations for these regions were handled from Dubai, Singapore or Hong Kong. Now however, most international companies have managed to overcome their inhibitions towards the Indian sector and are aggressively vying for a share of India’s hospitality pie. Hence, it makes great business sense to operate from India.”

Of a similar opinion, the newly appointed head of growth and development- Indian Ocean and Middle East for the Cendant Corporation in India, Sunil Mathur, said,“It is only a matter of time when most hotel and travel companies with a keen intention in the south Asian market will move their operational base to India. It is an economical option.”

The Asian operations of Global Experts in Travel (GET), a global travel management company are based out of its Indian representative, GET Lionel, a KK Birla Company. Its CEO Gaurav Sundaram said,“We are GET's biggest partners in Asia, therefore by that token, our office in Bangalore is the central point for coordination for all Asian markets, there being Phillipines, South Koream, Singapore and HongKong,"

Envisaging a growing trend, Homi Aibara, partner, Mahajan & Aibara, expressed that India is certainly a promising alternative as a regional corporate base especially if the Indian sub-continent is the core area of focus. However, India needs to improve on its much-needed infrastructure if they have to see full-fledged corporate office moving to its shores. At the moment, most international hotel and travel companies with a presence in India do not operate on full strength as a regional hub.

On the similar vein, Rajiv Sharma, head-development South Asia, InterContinental Group, elucidated that in the future there is no doubt that India will emerge as a regional hub of operations for many international companies in the business of travel and hospitality but this phenomenon is nascent at this stage and India has got a long way to go before it achieves infrastructure or governance like Singapore or Dubai.