Sterling goes in for a makeover

Having unveiled its new brand identity, Sterling Holidays is looking at expansion through management contracts. Ramesh Ramanathan, MD, Sterling Holidays, reveals the plan ahead.

Q How has the holiday industry transformed over the years?

The holiday landscape has changed tremendously, especially with low cost airlines and new routes on offer. We have also changed with time. Earlier we used to look for regular holiday locations such as Ooty, Shimla or Darjeeling. We then realised that people don’t mind driving for an hour and a half for a quick getaway, and thus we moved there as well. So, everything from location, nature of hotels, type of holidays as well as duration of vacations have changed.

 Q How has 2017 fared for you?

It has been good as it was the first full year when we finished all our refurbishments. From April-June, across our 2200 rooms, we did almost 82 per cent occupancy with almost 35 per cent increase in ARRs.

Q You now follow an open-to-all chain form of membership model. What brought about the change?

We have always been giving our members holiday experiences, but we were only having members and were selling memberships. It was a vacation ownership model. Now we are selling to everybody and have people come for two-three nights because we have built inventory like that. The experience and discoveries that we have are for everybody now.

Q What does the new branding entail?

The brand has evolved based on what we want to do. It is very contemporary. It is for those who are young and those who are young at heart. Hence, the colours are different and have a certain element of intrigue. The idea to deliver discoveries which intrigue travellers.

Q What are your expectations in 2018? What would be your growth strategy in this year?

This year, we will be looking at the management contract route, because with that option we can grow faster. We already own a lot of land, which we will develop, but the idea is to do it with management contract. We will also add around 400 rooms, and the overall idea is to add around 20-25 destinations over the next four-five years, which should double the number of rooms from the current 2200.

Q How is your partnership with MakeMyTrip?

MakeMyTrip has supported us and we continued to grow with them. Today, we are offering one of the largest leisure room nights to them. Across all the OTAs, wedo 20-25 per cent of our overall business.

“The brand has evolved based on what we want to do. It is very contemporary. It is for those who are young and those who are young at heart”