By Babita Krishnan
By general definition, a holiday means a vacation, to take a break from all things that you would do on any given day of your life – be it in office or home. We spend a lot of time and money planning our holidays – deciding the place to go, how to go there and of course, what we will do there, since it needs to appeal to everyone in the family. So we head for this really happening destination, book ourselves into the best property it has to offer, check in, curl up on the really comfortable bed, switch on the TV to surf for something to watch….Bliss!
“Really?” asks Jose Dominic, managing director, CGH Earth, “You have only changed the locale but continued to do the same thing you do everyday – maybe at a slower pace. Is this what a holiday is all about?” This is not surprising, coming from someone who has redefined the term ‘holiday’ as an experience – in fact that is what the tag line of his brand reads, experience hotels. “I believe that by making the customer ‘king’, you are loading him with a responsibility that he does not want to take. And I am also in agreement with Steve Jobs when he says that the customer does not know what he wants, give it to him and he will love you for it. We have found the emergence of a conscious customer and at CGH Earth, we create experiences that involve the guests while being environmentally aware and culturally rich,” explains Dominic.
But what does Dominic mean by this? How does this work? What is an experience hotel? Is CGH Earth an NGO or a business venture? Too many questions that need an explanation and no one better to answer than the man himself.
The company is a family-owned enterprise that opened its doors in 1954 with Casino Hotel in Wellington Island, Cochin, but it was a new venture by his father with practically no experience in hospitality. Dominic joined him later after a great deal of reluctance. “In fact, I was a chartered accountant in Mumbai with no intention of moving. My father was not in the best of health then and wanted me to join him, but I had very little inclination in joining his business. So I promised to join him for two years and when my younger brothers were ready, I would go back to my chosen profession of accounting. But that was not meant to be, I’m still here,” he smiles. Dominic recalls the mantra his father followed to run his hotel – by convincing the existing staff to continue with whatever they have been doing, but the ‘reluctant hotelier’ was given a sound advice on leaving his employment in Mumbai by one of his clients who was the vice chairman of Indian Hotels Company – “to be successful, a hotel must be big and part of a chain and your hotel is neither of them”. These words of wisdom seem to have had a great impact considering the group now has 14 hotels spread across peninsular India.
CGH Earth is a luxury brand that offers you a holiday marked by the absence of a phone, television, newspaper, AC, hot water, room service, multi-cuisine restaurants, or anything that you might associate with a vacation, especially a luxury holiday. Instead what you get is nature and the means to enjoy it without causing any damage to it.
The story began with the much publicised holiday of the then PM, the late Rajiv Gandhi in Lakshadweep in 1988. One of the decisions taken during the trip was that the island of Bangara, which had a government hotel, was to be privatised. Invitations were sent by the ministry of tourism to interested parties for a visit and proposal. “All big brands like the Taj, Oberoi, Leela, etc. were there and the chances for a single property hotel from Cochin were very less. However, my intention, apart from wanting to expand, was to see the island,” Dominic laughs. So, after seeing the spectacular island Dominic gave his proposal to the administration – “I said, don’t spoil this beautiful island with a hotel, but keep it original and authentic. We do not need to do anything here and that’s my proposal.” He became the successful bidder in October 1988 with the indication to re-commission the hotel within three months. “The airport was going to be commissioned and we made a commitment that the hotel will also open when the first aircraft lands. Of the 14 passengers that landed on the island on December 18, 1988, ten were visitors to the Bangaram Island Resort,” he says. One of the biggest initial hiccup was the pricing which matched that of The Oberoi, Mumbai (at US$180), “During the first couple of years, we felt that we will not be able to recover our investment, but our confidence came from the fact that people came back after their first visit and the only advice we got from them was to keep the property as it is, even if the price is increased,” Dominic recalls.
Armed with this experience, the brand chose Thekkady in Kerala following the same ideologies – preserving nature, including the community and being local – opened Spice Village on 18th December 1991 that became a spectacular success in a very short period of time. From then, as they say, there has been no looking back and “We continued the decision of no television in all our resort hotels and it is our most commented on and complained about feature,” laughs Dominic, sharing an instance of a Gujarati family who took a package of three-nights each at Coconut Lagoon, Marari Beach and Spice Village. At the end of their stay at Coconut Lagoon, they commented that though they enjoyed the place, no TV was a disappointment as they missed on their serials and stock market updates; the same complaint came up in Marari Beach. Their last stay was at Spice Village and the comment card there said, this was the first time they spent a week without TV and though they had earlier complained, they now wanted to compliment for the same because this gave them an experience beyond the usual and the family communicated with each other. “That is the model we work on – not to just make your holiday a memorable experience but a transformative experience.”
By 2004, the group had four properties under its belt and they realised that the name Casino Group of Hotels was not reflective of what the group believes in and offers. “We decided to use the name Earth for our three core values. But we were informed by our brand advisors that the word Earth cannot be used for a hotel, and it needs a proprietary pre-fix. So we added CGH to Earth with this logic that people dealing with us will read it as Casino Group of Hotels, but now it simply means Clean, Green and Healthy – Earth,” Dominic decodes the brand name.
Trade pundits say that geography is a strong influence on travel and we have a great advantage in India that the new drivers of travel need an intangible destination and within that he is really looking at a destination called the self. Dominic feels that the only way you can discover and connect with the self is in a natural surrounding and that is what CGH Earth offers to all its guests. Tourism is not just about a room with a view but more importantly, how does the room look from the view. Dominic shares the result of a research done some years back that put travellers in two baskets – one was called the Sun, Sand, Surf (SSS) basket and the other was the Alert and Able to Travel (AAT) basket. The SSS traveller may not even know which country he was in as long as he is around familiar brands and food, safe and very predictable. The AAT basket is exactly the opposite where unpredictability is more important. According to Dominic, over 90 per cent fall into SSS basket and the question is of one daring to invest in the AAT basket instead. “Secondly, one should look at your resources, assets and ability and in a country like India, AAT is our strongest asset. If you abandon it to go the other way, you lose the competitive advantage. The success of CGH is, I believe, because we consider our customer as AAT. Going indigenous is also the reason for Kerala’s success and that of India. The fundamental question to be asked is why people take a holiday?” he says.
Elaborating on the success mantra, Dominic adds that the logic is to find out assets at the destination – ecology, local community, etc. and then we can trigger off so many things like local skills, abilities and one has to value them in a local context. “Globalisation has a new meaning; it does not mean putting everything into one pot but to retain the identity and yet take care of all tastes. I believe that the ultimate luxury is when the consumer’s interest comes after that of the environment and local community. We look forward to becoming a brand that is local without compromising anywhere,” he adds.
These were some of the reasons why the brand was awarded the first The Green Signal eco-label in the country. The business model results in lower investment and lower carbon footprint. “The day is not far when carbon tax will be implemented in our country. In the last few months we have seen the conscious traveller gaining strength, take control and do things differently,” says Dominic. Partnering with the rural community and local tribes, where their skills combine with strength of the brand, this is what the future holds for CGH. Even in the existing properties, most of the staff are locals, born and brought up in the neighbourhood who know the land and culture intimately, and are concerned about preserving them both.
“We have decided to cross boundaries and I would like to go to places where other don’t want to go. India is such an undiscovered country and this idea can get translated in so many different ways. We are also looking at community-based tourism,” Dominic reveals the way forward for the brand.
Jose Dominic’s model for the success of CGH Earth recalls Alvin Toffler’s prescription for future development, which marries the values of Gandhi and the Satellite – Gandhi for local and participative inclusion, respect for animals, etc. and satellite for relevant and appropriate technology. It just might be a great thing to combine them to create a product that will bring the advantages of our million-year-old culture to the fore.
