TravTalk India Online Magazine
Upbeat about the response from the Indian market, JA Hotels & Resorts is aggressively promoting its hotels to garner more business from here. Its properties provide packages and facilities that exclusively cater to Indian travellers, including room upgrades and floating breakfasts.
TT Bureau
JA Hotels & Resorts six hotels in Dubai and two in the Indian Ocean. The group is now looking predominantly for leisure FITs as well as leisure groups, weddings, and for the small corporate meetings business in the Indian market, says Christopher Tutty, Director of Sales and Leisure, JA Hotels & Resorts.
“Our resort property, JA Beach Hotel in Jebel Ali Beach, Dubai, has seen a remark- able increase in the weddings business. We have confirmed and materialised many Indian weddings there. The team is very active and ensures that they properly cater to the Indian wedding segment, especially for vegetarian meals. To promote destination weddings in our hotels, we also recently held an event with wedding planners in Mumbai. The wedding business from India has grown for us by 100 per cent year-on-year,” he says.
JA Lake View Hotel is the newest addition to JA The Resort, Dubai, and offers 348 rooms. Tutty shares, “We are offering 40 different experiences ranging from horse riding, shooting, archery and motorised & non-motorised water sports to spa, golf, mini golf, kids’ facilities, fishing trips, boating activities, seaplane tours and much more. We are seeing a lot of interest from the Indian market for the newly-opened hotel.”
We are offering 40 different experiences ranging from horse riding and shooting to motorised and non-motorised water sports; we are seeing a lot of interest from India- Christopher Tutty
Elaborating on the culinary offerings, he says, “We have teamed up with three internationally-acclaimed chefs across the brand to deliver on our vision of cool and casual restaurants and bars with outstanding F&B and an approachable atmosphere. We have teamed up with China’s Chef Da Dong at JA Manafaru Maldives and are also collaborating with Chef Greg Malouf to launch two Middle East-inspired restaurants in both JA Beach Hotel and JA Oasis Beach Tower. We also have on board Michelin Star chef Vikas Khanna, who has recently opened his signature Indian restaurant, Kinara, at JA Lake View Hotel.” The hotel will also house ‘81’, a buffet restaurant with live cooking stations and ‘Republik’, a gastropub with Friday brunches and a rooftop mixology lounge. Speaking of JA Manafaru’s unique location in a part of Maldives that is still untouched, Alexander Kharabadze, its Director of Sales & Marketing, says that this allows the property to enjoy the sunniest days in the year. “We have 87 villas, half of them are on water and half on the beach. For India market, we have a special add- on, which includes 15 minutes of head and shoulder massage, room upgrade, and a movie under the stars. We also offer a floating breakfast – a romantic experience for honeymooners to enjoy,” he adds.
