Hyatt CEO foresees India as the second-largest market in 30-40 years: here’s why
Summary
Mark Hoplamazian, CEO of Hyatt Hotels, believes that India has tremendous tourism potential and the government must work towards increasing the exposure of inbound travellers to the country’s natural resources and history. “It would be great to have an Olympics in India,” he said.
India today is better poised for growth in the hospitality sector than the rest of the world, and that is because of a secret weapon. The CEO of Hyatt Hotels says that India’s secret weapon is the tremendous warmth and engagement of its people.
“The experience people get in India when they disembark from the plane and start exploring the country is what sets India apart,” said Mark Hoplamazian, who has been the CEO of Hyatt Hotels since 2006.
At present, Hyatt has 50 hotels in Southwest Asia, including 48 in India and 2 in Nepal. In 2024, the hotel chain will open 8 new establishments in the region. The company also has a pipeline of 50 more hotels and plans to enter 28 new markets in the next five years.
Hoplamazian believes that India has tremendous tourism potential, and the government must work towards increasing the exposure of inbound travellers to the country’s natural resources and history. “It would be great to have an Olympics in India,” he said.
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Hoplamazian believes that Hyatt’s revenue share from India may be less than 10%, but the company is poised to grow at a faster rate in India than anywhere in the world. ‘In a decade, Hyatt will see manifold growth in India, and in 30-40 years, India could become the second-largest market for Hyatt,’ he said.
Another reason for Hyatt’s big bet on India is that hospitality as a percentage of GDP is 6%, whereas the figure stands at 10% for advanced economies. Therefore, the group believes that the incidence of inbound travel will only increase over time.
“I have been bullish on India in my position for over 17 years. I have always believed that India’s demographic profile and natural resources will attract travellers for a very long time,” he said.
Hoplamazian said that the global outlook for hotel demand remains robust, with Hyatt witnessing a continuous increase in demand, especially for leisure travel.
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“We have 330,000 rooms in our portfolio across the world, and we ended 2023 with a future pipeline of 127,000 rooms, which is 40% of our current inventory. We have significant expansion plans for India, China, Europe, and the Middle East,” he said.
The CEO has overseen the company’s strategy to be asset-light and sell properties worth 4 billion dollars. This was done to free up capital for strategic expansion and acquisitions worth 3.5 billion dollars.
“Since the beginning of our asset-light evolution in 2017 through the end of 2023, we doubled the number of luxury hotel rooms, tripled the number of resort rooms, and quintupled the number of lifestyle rooms,” he said.
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