Sarovar Hotels & Resorts has gradually expanded in East Africa and India. Ajay K Bakaya, Managing Director of the group, tells us why Africa was a chosen spot for international expansion.
What helps you single-out an international location for expansion?
Sarovar has been international for almost 20 years now. We started in a small way in Tanzania and then got rather serious about Africa, more precisely English-speaking East Africa, about 10 years ago. We have had our hits and misses; it’s a more challenging environment than India, where people know who we are. We developed some hotels but lost them after two to three years for different reasons.
Sarovar is now operating in Nairobi (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Lusaka (Zambia), and has projects coming up in Axum (Ethiopia) and Somaliland. Now, how do we choose where to go? Honestly, we don’t. Opportunities come to us, we deliberate, and wherever we feel we can add strong value, we go ahead.
Why Africa for Sarovar?
This story is from the February 2019 - March 2019 edition of Hospitality Talk.
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This story is from the February 2019 - March 2019 edition of Hospitality Talk.
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