‘Indians fastest growing outbound travellers globally; will overtake Chinese in absolute numbers too:’ Hilton president Alan Watts

NEW DELHI: Post Covid, Indians have emerged as the fastest growing outbound travellers globally and in coming decades they will overtake the Chinese — currently the largest movement of people from a country — in real numbers too. And hoteliers will have to keep in mind the characteristics of the desi globetrotter while designing properties, Alan Watts, Hilton (Asia Pacific) president, told TOI Monday.

“Indian outbound is becoming a traveling force to reckon with, in line with the economic growth of India. Wherever you end up with a dominance of travel, it will impact hotel design & cuisine. Young Indian couples travelling with their parents and children. This 3 generation (3G) travel is quite unique to the Indian traveler. And so that means when you’re designing a hotel, you need more than connecting rooms. You need flexible rooms, closed door corridors to create an apartment style at the end of a hallway for a traveling Indian family,” said the president of the world’s second largest hospitality company with over 8,000 hotels globally. Marriott International is the largest with about 9,000 properties.

In CY 2023, 2.72 crore Indians travelled abroad, more than the 2.69 crore in pre-pandemic 2019. On the other hand, 15.5 crore Chinese tourists travelled abroad in 2019. While in absolute numbers Chinese are the single biggest source of international tourists, this is is set to change in a not so distant future.

India recently overtook China as the most populous nation in the world. “India has a younger population, higher birth rates and a stronger GDP growth. As increase disposable income levels and the rising middle class continues to fuel travel, India will become the third largest lodging market in the world. And then in the fullness of time, some decades, India has the potential to be the largest traveling population in in the world. Which is why everybody in travel and tourism, whether cruise liners, airlines, tour companies or hotels, should be focused on the potential of India for the future,” Watts said.

Hilton currently has 29 properties in India, with 24 in the pipeline which will open in three years. It has now signed a strategic licensing agreement (SLA) with Olive by Embassy to open 150 “Spark by Hilton” in India over the next decade. This is a premium economy brand with daily tariffs in Rs 4,000-6,000 range and all these properties will come up in south India.

Asked if 200-odd properties in India for the world’s second largest hotel company are enough, Watts said: “This is one announcement. Over the coming months, you will hear from us about several other things. I don’t want to give a number of hotels we see having in India over the coming years, but it is going to be sizeable.”

While India is a big source market for customers for all travel companies including airlines globally, hotels have one another aspect — trained manpower working in properties abroad, especially the US, and persons of Indian origin (PIOs) owning the same. “I get the privilege of traveling all around the world for for a living. There's not a place in the world where you wouldn’t find an Indian at a very senior leadership position — all through Southeast Asia and the US. Indians are really importantly on the owner side also. The largest owners of Hampton By Hilton franchises in the US are Patels. There are a lot of Indian owners that have made their generational wealth through partnering with Hilton in one of our brands. There's a huge sort of tradition of Indian entrepreneurs in the US, taking franchise-focus service hotels. Starting with one and ending up with 30 or 40. Patel is the most frequent owner’s name for a Hampton Bay Hilton franchise in the US. It’s been such a vehicle for entrepreneurial Indians,” Watts said.

“Ownership has worked very well. It’s been a huge part of the Hilton story overseas and we'll be here and the same from a service perspective. Whether you're an employee working from Hamilton and you work your way up to general manager. Whether you are an owner, an investor or of course, whether you're a customer, brand Hilton has just such a strong association with India,” he added.

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