TravTalk India Online Magazine
Mayfair Hotels & Resorts has appointed Bjorn DeNiese as Vice President—Business Development. He will be responsible for spearheading the group’s future as it aims to deploy a new sub-brand into the market.
Anupriya Bishnoi
Q. Tell us something about your new role?
Mayfair Hotels & Resorts has always owned and operated its hotels. With this new vertical, we will get into management, franchise and lease segment of operating hotels. So, it’s a much lighter model we are looking at. With this, we are looking at rapid growth foremostly. With the network of our sales that we’ve already settled, we are going to leverage that.
The new vertical will initially keep the focus on the East of the country and subsequently look to make headway to central and Northeast India. With the group primarily owning and operating all 10 current hotels, the upcoming projects include Raipur (early 2019), Siliguri and Kolkata (2020). The new vertical will be responsible for further development and expansion of the group which will establish itself through lease, management and franchise models under a yet-to-be named brand and aims to add on another 100 rooms to the current portfolio of 515 rooms by the end of this financial year and double the number of rooms within three years.
The new vertical will be responsible for further development and expansion of the group which will establish itself through lease, management and franchise models under a yet-to-be named brand
Q. What kind of business strategy are you planning to have?
Our entire team is going to be brand-new with a contemporary approach to things with forward thinking and a novel style of management. Obviously, we will always make sure that the signature Mayfair touch exists, but we are looking to leverage technology in a big way in the future.
Q. What’s your take on competition? Is it intimidating to you in anyway?
Not at all. All the other brands present in the region already have a lot of international presence but the eastern region so far has been our market for more than 30 years and we know it better. It’s time to make sure the legacy goes forward.
Q. What are the kind of challenges you face?
Looking at the Eastern and Northeastern region, some of the biggest challenges we face is internet connectivity and accessibility of the region. As an industry, if we are looking forward to establishing better tourism circuit in the east and Northeast, we must ensure that there’s government support in terms of infrastructure and policies.
