Pankaj Gupta, General Manager, Holiday Inn Jaipur City Centre talks about the strategies employed by his hotel to welcome the revival of domestic tourism in Jaipur.

The Government of Rajasthan recently announced their renewed focus on promoting the state for domestic tourism by investing Rs. 200 crore. In an exclusive conversation with BW HOTELIER, Pankaj Gupta, General Manager, Holiday Inn Jaipur City Centre, shares insights on the preparedness of the hotel to welcome guests once again.

Holiday Inn Jaipur City Centre, with 172 keys including six suites, four food and beverage dining options and recreational facilities like an outdoor rooftop pool, spa and salon, a fully functional gym and over 26,000 sq. ft. of open-air lawn space offers guest a place to relax and enjoy all these facilities under one roof. The hotel offers all safety protocols defined by the Government of Rajasthan and ‘IHG Way of Clean.’

Sharing his views on the impact of the easing lockdown on his business, Gupta shares, “We anticipate steady growth in occupancy after the lockdown relaxations. However, the Average Daily Rate still remains to be stressed currently. Jaipur being a preferred destination wedding venue, still awaits the restrictions to be lifted which shall be a good revenue stream for us.”

F&B: A significant contributor 

To adapt to the altering business environment, the hotel has constantly been evolving and innovating their services to keep the customers engaged. “Since we are one of the most sought-after hotels with varied dining options, apart from maximising presence on all digital platforms and food aggregators, we believe in maintaining personal connects with our loyalty members and curate special and customised menus to their preferences,” he says. 

Door to Door Home Delivery Service: A successful addition

They conceptualised ‘Door to Door Home Delivery Service’ last year wherein the menus were designed keeping in mind the bestsellers and the availability of the raw material during lockdown period. After receiving a positive response to last year’s services, the hotel reintroduced this service with enhanced safety measures and improved eco-friendly packaging during the lockdown this year. “The key factor to our success was the fact that we ensured that the hotel handled food end-to-end eliminating the need to incorporate a third-party delivery partner and ensure food safety and hygiene,” Gupta shares. 

In addition to a la carte menu offerings, they initiated Buffet@Home this year and specialised themed meals to savour the buffet experience from their homes. Offers like Mother’s Day special promotion, Staycation offers on Minimum Order were also appreciated by the guests.

“This was one of our extremely well executed classic projects with minimum marketing spends and reaching out to masses to promote the offerings across varied communication mediums. The tireless efforts by our culinary teams to dish out mouth-watering delicacies to tantalise tastebuds deserve all the applauds since there were no ways we could forecast the demand. And our offerings were huge, making it that much more difficult for them to plan yet keep costs under check at all times,” he puts in.

Domestic tourism to lead the way 

Identifying Domestic Tourism as a sustainable segment in post-pandemic business recovery, he remarks, “Domestic tourism during pre-pandemic scenarios would contribute about 70 per cent of the overall transient traffic at the hotel. However, in today’s scenario, domestic tourism contributes to almost 90 per cent traffic.” He attributes this rise to ‘Revenge Travel’ that helped the industry sustain in off-peak months from July to October. “Jaipur, due to its connectivity with Delhi-NCR has always been among  the favourite destination for family getaways and staycations. Local food and shopping avenues have always been a strong pull to drive domestic tourism in the city and state,” he states. “We, at Holiday Inn Jaipur City Centre, focus on feedbacks and reviews from our esteemed guests since they provide valuable insights on services, offerings, and changing travel patterns. This helps us evolve in our services and improvise on our opportunity areas,” he adds.

Vision for future 

“Travel and tourism are one of the most volatile industries that get impacted due to any event occurring globally or at a national level. This pandemic has been a rare scenario wherein, in my experience, I saw hotels coming to a grinding halt instantly and stopping operations from being at 90-95 per cent occupancy a day before the lockdown was announced. This truly has been a testing phase for all industry professionals and a little bitter for hotel investors and ownerships,” he asserts.

Gupta puts in that domestic tourism and corporate travel would give the first boost to the travel and hotel industry. However, inbound travel, he feels, will take some more time to revive.

He highlights that programme from IHG like ‘IHG Meet With Confidence’ would assist corporate organisations and event planners in organising events at hotels by adapting new technological and innovative meeting solutions and driving MICE and wedding events.

Furthermore, he says that the hotel will be focussing on initiating more one-to-one counselling sessions with trained professionals to alleviate the post-pandemic trauma faced by their teams. Additionally, their team leaders will ensure maintain a healthy work atmosphere within hotels and keep team members motivated at all times and deliver genuine hospitality in the future.