The Maturing Business of Leisure

HVS' Manav Thadani believes that India’s leisure hotel business segment holds tremendous potential with diverse destinations waiting to be explored. A paradigm shift is necessary and the time has come.

For over two decades, HVS has collated data related to the country’s hotel performance through its annual ‘Trends & Opportunities Survey’. This report discusses the key hospitality trends as well as HVS’ outlook for the future, highlighting 13 major Indian markets. It presents opportunities in the hospitality industry of specific interest to investors, developers and hotel operators.

This year's HVS ‘Trends & Opportunities’ report bears witness to an appreciable increase in nationwide occupancy coupled with a nominal growth in average daily rate (ADR). Given the detailed analysis that goes into this report, one of the key benefits is that we are able to slice and dice information and extract trends that deserve timely attention by the industry's stakeholders. This year, we challenge an industry paradigm that has since long held us back in exploring new avenues for revenue growth – leisure lacks the ability to make money!

Although, the majority of demand for hotels originates from commercial activity, there is a large portion of Indians travelling for leisure, both within the country and overseas. In 2015, the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that leisure travel spending (inbound and domestic) generated 83.2 per cent of the direct travel and tourism GDP (INR 5,945.5 billion) in comparison to 16.8 per cent from business travel spending (INR 1,198.9 billion).

STEADY DEMAND FOR LEISURE HOTELS