TravTalk India Online Magazine
Marriott International recently held its signature event – India Marketplace – first time in the City of Nizams at The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace and saw a huge turnout from hotels under the brand across India networking with the corporate, wedding and travel trade in the city.
TT Bureau
This was the first time that the Marriott India Marketplace was introduced to Hyderabad with The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace playing the perfect host. With over 30 hotels participating in the event, there was a great mix of hospitality offerings from Marriott.
Hyderabad debut
Amitabh Rai, Cluster General Manager, The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace and Hyderabad Market, Marriott International, shared, “Hyderabad is emerging very fast as a primary feeder market for many other cities in India. Until now, people used to consider Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and even Kolkata as major markets, but Hyderabad has now become prominent with new businesses coming in, proactive government in terms of infrastructure development. It’s a revelation for Marriott as a brand too. We are the largest hotel chain in India today with 135 hotels and growing. For us, it’s important to grow our roots deep into the Hyderabad market,” he claimed.
Claiming that the response to the event was excellent, Abhishek Rajagolkar, Area Director Sales & Distribution South & East India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Marriott International, said, “We divided it in two sessions. The afternoon session had one-on-one meetings, where around 140 people came. The evening focused on engagement and networking, which included senior leaders of companies. Close to 150 people were present for the soiree.”
Why Hyderabad
Saying that they already have seven Marriott hotels in the Hyderabad market, Rai revealed they are building an eighth hotel, which is the next Westin in Hyderabad. “No other chain has so many hotels. Eight hotels of the brand in one market, and three more coming up over the next few years, shows the importance of Hyderabad for Marriott and that’s the future we see,” he said.Rajagolkar agreed, “Hyderabad has also individually developed as a wedding market, especially because people couldn’t travel to international destinations for weddings. We have done many domestic weddings in the last two years and hotels are seeing value in that because weddings dates in the city are not the normal wedding or mahurat dates, followed across India.”
Integrating the cluster
When it comes to the Hyderabad cluster, Rai shared that they are integrating many things here. “Firstly, we are synergising our own operations together as a cluster. Thus, all hotels’ purchasing in Hyderabad is now clustered, which gives us more power to negotiate with the vendors. In addition, we are clustering the marketing for all hotels. The idea is to operate and get our efficiencies together,” he claimed.
However, he added, “For customers, we are going to do a lot of events. We are planning to do a golf event in October, which will be a Marriott Golf Tournament, and will involve many hotels of Marriott brand and we would get in our customers fly in people from outside to come and play this tournament and have a gala evening. Apart from events, we have many activities planned on the ESG front, which is the sustainability aspect.”
Brand expansion
Commenting on a statement from top management at Marriott of developing 27 properties in India in the next 18 months, Rajagolkar said, “Among the many hotels that will be opening soon is a Courtyard by Marriott in Trichy. We also have a beautiful Le Meridien opening in Amritsar. A Westin will be opening in Rishikesh. These are all new destinations bringing some unique hotels.” He added, “Tertiary cities like Trichy and Siliguri are seeing good and consistent demand.”
