Anantara is a blend of true culture of Rajasthan’s heritage and the modern opulence
Vimal Verma
How has the hotel performed so far? Has it met your expectations?
I think there is always room for more, but if I have to look back, when we were bringing the brand to the country and the position that we wanted to gain, the journey has been very interesting. We have come a very long way. The best part is that the expectation and understanding that clients had from a global brand like Anantara, we have been keeping up with that and in most of the ways exceeding as well. So, the journey has been interesting, we feel it is on the right track, the momentum is building up and more and more, even our hunger for delivering more is getting on the way as well.
How has the response been since opening?
We opened in November, and in the initial phase, when the hotel was still getting up and ready, it was essentially our pre-opening phase. At that time, of course, the majority of the clientele was local, and by local, I mean India as a major market. However, ever since the name tag went up, I think that is where the game changed.
In phase two, we saw a great interaction from an international set of customers as well. And now, as we approach one year in November, we are seeing a fair balance in terms of FITs. These are international travellers, people who usually come to explore the city, especially those who may have previously patronised properties like Raj Vilas and Rambagh.
We are seeing many international travellers from those kinds of markets. It is only year one, so a little early to say definitively, but the growth has been good. Movement has been strong both from Indians as a segment, and Indians settled outside India as another key segment.
To our great surprise, we have also seen interest from international travellers who are neither Indian nor NRIs. That market is starting to pick up too, and we are getting a lot of queries based on that. A majority of these are from the Asian markets and also the Middle East, where the brand already has a very high recall value.
That said, the biggest market for us remains domestic. Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, and Kolkata continue to be the biggest feeder markets.
Surprisingly, Tier II and Tier III cities have also shown tremendous potential and taken us by surprise. Places like Ludhiana, Ayodhya, and Odisha are now generating a significant number of queries, which is very encouraging.
Looking at international trends, and keeping India aside, our market is slowly shifting more towards the eastern side. Besides Thailand, we are now getting queries from the Korean market as well, especially for FIT travel.
However, the maximum growth we are seeing is from the eastern coast of the United States, particularly from the wedding market perspective. The US is growing quite strong for us.
With regard to Europe, the biggest challenge is that we are just entering the first quarter where European inbound series typically begin, especially travellers from Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany. These travellers usually start arriving during August, September and October. We are receiving strong interest from the European market. We are just yet to see that materialise.
Are weddings a key target segment for you?
In the first phase of our hotel, since it was a wedding season that went on from November till March, the number of queries from international guests, especially NRIs were a lot. There are two bigger segments of those. People either have roots in Rajasthan specifically or those who want to have dream weddings, these are people who moved out of India and they want to come back and do the palatial weddings and all that stuff.
Social media really captured the essence of the property in a palatial manner. The celebratory elegance of the property and the layout is such. And of course, the teams really pulled them up for a great food and beverage experience, the rooms experience which has a potential to attract a lot of wedding business.
During season 1, we ended up doing maybe 3-4 destination weddings, but now when we are in the second half of the year, the numbers are going as good as eight-nine. And next year, I think we are looking at probably 15-20 weddings very easily. Ever since from March, after the wedding season, there has been a phenomenal increase in corporate business as well.
Jaipur has several luxury hotels like Taj Rambagh and Oberoi Raj Vilas, how do you plan to stand out?
I think it is not about competition. Let us do it with the growth in harmony. I mean every luxury brand that comes to the city, we feel very happy about it. What it does is, it opens a different spectrum.
What Rambagh and Raj Vilas has done to the city is they have really coined the city into the global map. And they have held that fort for a really long time. And I think we all are deeply grateful for how these brands have really maintained the legacy of the city.
You see, there is one unique thing about Rajasthan or Jaipur, that it is that most of the states in our country, they are all becoming economically developed or they are all becoming developed with various different progress that they are making. Rajasthan remains the only state that is actually making its development based on heritage.
So, this state continues to keep the heritage ethos very strong. And as hotels, when we come up, I think Anantara is really a blend of true culture of Rajasthan’s heritage and the modern opulence. So I think it is sharing the load a little bit with them and learn from them as well at the same time and bring the global touch of luxury to the city.
What are your marketing strategies?
Marketing is going to be an ongoing process for us. I think the first phase for us was important was to establish the brand as this is the first Anantara in the country. Yet, as a majority of Indian travellers have already seen our brand in Thailand or the Middle East, so brand awareness is already there. So, at the time of launch, when we thought that we would need a very strong awareness campaign, it was not true as people were already aware.
They would ask us where is this Anantara signature experience? Do you do this or not? Where is Anantara spa? They were also very particular about the designer dining as a concept. So, for us it was like let us live up to the brand.
Marketing wise we opened our gateways for experiential part of whether it is media, influencers or the right set of audience. Ever since probably March, we got the window. We continue to stay aggressive on this.
Our approach is that instead of a print advertisement or any other social media plan, we want to bring experiential experiences that involve them to come and stay, live the brand and feel the brand.
Because that word of someone who has lived there and the connect when somebody writes and talks about it is much different than probably just getting some images, having a nice article and sending it out. So, we want to make smaller groups of people who can come, stay, enjoy the brand and experience the part of the brand.
What are your mid-term expectations for the property?
Very high and I split that into two different aspects. One as a brand and the other in terms of clients. The word of mouth has been very encouraging and for us the newer segments which are now starting to produce are corporate business, and weddings have also been a very strong pillar for us. We want to target three primary categories, that is weddings, corporates and inbound FIT or group series.