Marriage Of Mice With Marriott

Neeraj Govil, Area Vice President – South Asia, Marriott International, elaborates on how the group’s innovative concepts and invigorating partnerships help drive results and guest satisfaction in the wedding space.

- Anupriya Bishnoi

Tell us about the involvement of Marriott in the wedding segment.

The whole premise behind the campaign ‘Shaadi by Marriott’ is to show that we have our fair share of the burgeoning wedding space. This is a segment we have been interested in for a very long time. There are two reasons for that; the first is that we are looking to attract domestic tourists and ensure we endear ourselves up to them. Wedding is beyond just the couple. People place a lot of trust whenever they ask any hotel to manage their wedding. We are likely to win them as an audience. The second reason is that we are a global player and the largest hotel company in the world. More and more Indians are now travelling outside India. We are confident that if people can understand and value what we can do in India, when they travel outside India, they are likely to stay at a Marriott property. We see this as a means to grow our share of wedding business in India.

Are you going to do away with all the external wedding planners?

We are not doing away with them, we are working in partnership with them. If a consumer wants to work directly with the hotel, we are more than happy to work with them. We are working with a lot of wedding planners across India. The whole idea, from an operations perspective, is about planning to be able to cater to all sorts of weddings. A great example is JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata that was opened last year. We have had great success in the wedding space because of the way the hotel is laid out and we are now putting bridal rooms in our hotels because we understand the need of the bridal room next to the Grand Ballroom. We have also put specialist wedding planners in our hotels.