SAILING through nearly a year-long lull that witnessed economic slowdown, terror strikes in Mumbai and a swine flu scare, hotel industry has started seeing signs of recovery. By the end of this financial year, it is looking forward for a 30 per cent recovery in occupancy levels.
"We have started seeing some recovery during the past two months. There has been a 10-12 per cent recovery since July in the occupancy rates," M P Purushothaman, chairman of Empee Group and president of federation of hotel and restaurants associations of India, said.
Occupancies had gone down by 35 to 40 per cent during November to June compared to the levels prevailed during the corresponding period of 2007-08, said T Natarajan, CEO of GRT Hotels and Resorts. In 200708, occupancy levels were around 85 per cent.
In cities like Bangalore, where the IT and ITeS sectors bore the brunt of the slowdown, the decline in occupancy level was 48 per cent. Kerala's hotel industry, which mainly relies on travel and tourism, was hit by 50 per cent.
Besides the slowdown, the Mumbai terror strikes and swine flu scare and subsequent travel advisories also affected the hotel industry.
According to Natarajan, the profitability and room realisation was further down as many of them have been resorting to offering discounted rates to boost occupancy. "Almost all the hotels had lowered the rates by 40 to 50 per cent for week-end stays," he said.
"By the end of the financial year, however, we expect a recovery of 30 per cent mainly due to the seasonal inflow of guests since October. Usually October to March period contributes to 60 per cent of the total annual revenue of the hotels,"he said.
|
|
