India is amongst the top five growth markets globally and is witnessing “very strong growth over 2019” (pre-Covid times). The recovery is led by domestic tourism, particularly leisure travel; followed by uptake of corporate and MICE (meetings, incentives, conference and exhibitions) bookings, says Rajeev Menon, President, Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China), Marriott International.

The hospitality major currently has 131 operational hotels in India spread across 16 brands that include JW Marriott, Fairfield by Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, Sheraton, Renaissance, Four Points by Sheraton, among others. It manages close to 26,000 keys in the country. Nine more are to be added by end of this year.

According to Menon, leisure travel particular in resort destinations and secondary and tertiary cities (Tier-II, Tier-III and so on) led the recovery in numbers beginning the “back half of February” (post Omicron). And businesses have been up since then. For instance, occupancy in Mumbai is around 80 per cent now.

What started as recovery in resort and holiday destinations, is now being witnessed across “major markets” like a Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru; indicating return of corporate and business travel to pre-Covid and in some select markets, better than pre-Covid levels.

Market sources say, recovery numbers in India are “130–140 per cent north of pre-Covid levels” for the industry, as a whole.

“Today it is not about recovery to 2019 levels. Rather we see very strong growth across our portfolio. The booking pace for the future months (also) look good,” he told BusinessLine.

“India is among our top four to five growth markets and in 2022 our signing pace (for new properties) is up 60 per cent, y-o-y. We have 67-odd properties in the pipeline over the next 4–5 years,” Menon added.

Short Breaks – a new trend

Despite international travel opening up, domestic tourism is expected to sustain its momentum on the back of “high population base in the country that has a desire to go out” and rising trend of weekend getaways and shorter vacations.

“Short breaks by people are up significantly and that is where domestic vacations will sustain. On the other hand, for longer trips people will slowly look at international destinations,” he said.

According to him, a combination of inflation and improved demand led to a 5–10 per cent rise in room rates across the industry. The variations are also market-specific depending on demand-supply factors.

International Travel

On the other hand, international travel has “not fully kicked in” and is “still picking up”. The segment is expected to pick up in the October-December period, considered to be the peak arrival season for international tourists to India.

“International corporate travel is also picking up and may be around Q4CY2022 we could see international travel be around 2019 levels,” he added.

Travel trends in India have actually mirrored recovery trends in western nations – like the European nations or the USA and other Asian markets.

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