Seeing deferments & some cancellations from Middle East; domestic more travellers opting for holidays in India: Leela CEO

NEW DELHI: While inbound travel to India from the Gulf in particular is hit during the ongoing Israel-Iran war, domestic travellers — averse to going abroad in the current environment — are filling in for the deferments and cancellations of the former, said the Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts CEO Anuraag Bhatnagar on Friday. The Brookfield-backed luxury chain gets 55% of its business from international guests.

“Guests who were booked to come from the Middle East have deferred their visits dn there have been some cancellations too. The overall (international) travel sentiment is weak at the moment and airfares are where they are (read high). So an increased number of domestic travellers are now opting for vacation within India. That has filled up the space created by international deferments,” Bhatnagar said.

How does the group travel to revive whenever the war ends, which it does so quickly hopefully. “Leela has been around for 40 years now and what we have seen is that recovery of luxury travel is quick. It is very resilient, this has been our experience after several tragic events in the last two decades,” Bhatnagar said. The Leela is slated to make it first foray abroad with a property in Dubai which is plans to unveil next year.

Leela currently has 13 properties operational and sees this number rising to 23 by March 2030. It is in the midst of Rs 1,300-crore capex at five places — Agra, Ayodhya, Srinagar, Bandhavgarh and Ranthambore — for opening hotels with 1,000 keys in these places. Additionally, Leela is building a greenfield Leela Palace in BKC, Mumbai, which is 50% owned by it & 50% by Brookfield.

Unlike most other hospitality chains that are going asset light by going in for management contracts to expand footprint, Brookfield-backed Leela will own 12 of the hotels, which means more than half of the 23 hotels expected by 2030 will be owned by it.

The group is very bullish on Indian luxury space. “India is at the beginning of a multi-decadal cycle of luxury. The 7 crore households currently targeted by luxury players are expected to triple by 2030. While demand for luxury hospitality is growing in double digits, there is very little supply addition in the space,” Bhatnagar had recently said.



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