Mayfair Hotels & Resorts, which currently operates 10 hotels, is going ahead with its expansion plan. “We have four hotels in pipeline once each in Kalimpong, Siliguri, Kolkata and Raipur. While the Kalimpong property is opening in January 2018, we have acquired land for the remaining three properties. In Kolkata, we are coming up with a 256- room hotel. We will be investing around Rs 500 crores on these four properties,” Souvagya Mohapatra, Executive Director, Mayfair Hotels & Resorts, said.
Replying to a question over the number of hotels under the group banner by 2023, he said that the company will have around 17-18 hotels. “We may go for a hotel in Paradeep and one big convention hotel in Bhubaneswar. Most of our properties are resorts and we are looking at lesser key properties. We aim to invest Rs 600-700 crores on developing new hotels,” he said.
The group witnesses around 68 per cent occupancy across all its property. “Mayfair Gangtok is doing the highest occupancy. The business of Bhuvaneswar hotel is mainly driven by the Convention centre. We have been getting a lot of conventions and conferences. We work in close coordination with other hotels in the city,” he said and added that Bhubaneswar is going to host a medical conference of around 5,000 doctors in November. Currently, the group enjoys 60 per cent of its business from the leisure and remaining from the business segment. Almost 30 per cent of our room occupancy for the Bhubaneswar hotel is coming from MICE segment.” He opined that one needs to have three to four hotels in different cities in east India to have a good business.
Talking about the emerging tourism scenario in the state, Mohapatra said that private players are working closely with the government. “We participate in national and international travel events together. Our collective objective is to promote Odisha as a tourism destination. Recently AirAsia has stated international service from Bhubaneswar. So, we are expecting more international business in coming months,” he added.
Mayfair aims to become the established national chain hotels in coming years. “We are not looking at any tie up with international hotel chains. Our sales strategy is in place. Currently, we are focused on markets in eastern India but also looking to tap the potential of Tier-II cities,” he informed.
