Enriching India’s tourism landscape, ITC’s hotel business, with its repertoire of iconic properties, globally acknowledged cuisines, service excellence, and ethos of responsible luxury, is well poised to leverage emerging opportunities. The asset-right strategy envisioned for the next horizon of growth, together with the impending move to give new wings to ITC Hotels as a pure-play entity, foretells an exciting future. The robust pipeline of managed properties will take the overall footprint to over 200 hotels in the coming years, enabling ITC to enlarge its contribution to employment generation.
In line with the ‘asset right’ strategy for the hotel business, 32 hotels have been opened in the last 24 months, taking the total to nearly 140 hotels. Segment ROCE of hotels has risen by nearly 1,100 bps over the pre-Covid period.
It is well acknowledged that the tourism potential is boundless and plays a pivotal role in anchoring large-scale livelihood generation, more so given the variety of unrivalled destinations the country possesses across nature, wildlife, adventure, heritage, medical, or pilgrimage tourism, as well as MICE and wedding-focused opportunities. The government has rightly taken proactive steps to promote this sector.
According to the draft Tourism Policy, employment can grow from 88 million currently to 400 million by 2047, with tourism GDP growing from US$ 143 billion to US$ 1 trillion, highlighting the exponential growth potential. The emerging trends of micro-tourism, immersive experiences, and multiple short vacations will also add new dimensions to this industry.
The tourism sector’s resurgence points to the immense potential of this industry to generate gainful employment. The supply of rooms in India currently stands at only 0.11 per 1,000 population relative to the world average of about 2.2, highlighting the enormous headroom for growth. World-class convention facilities, such as the Bharat Mandapam and the Yashobhoomi Centre, have hosted prestigious global events and showcased India’s competitive edge in prestigious MICE events. While global campaigns to promote India’s treasure trove of tourism assets remain imperative, concerted efforts are also required to scale up skilling to meet emerging demand.
ITC has made significant investments in building skilled hospitality talent through six focused programmes, including the ITC Hospitality Management Institute and the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration. Granting infrastructure status to hotels and deemed export benefits to earnings from foreign tourists can provide further impetus to investments in this sector.
Opportunities with a focus on proximal markets to be explored
ITC’s wholly owned subsidiary, WelcomHotels Lanka Private Limited, also launched the iconic ITC Ratnadipa, widely acknowledged as a jewel in Colombo’s hospitality landscape.
As part of the asset-right strategy for ITC Hotels, opportunities with a focus on proximal markets will continue to be explored over time.
