At an event to announce the company's latest foreign acquisition, the W hotel in Sydney, Senior Vice President Ajoy K Misra said the chain is already in talks with a few possible partners to for forming a joint marketing alliance and intelligence sharing.
"It has become more competitive in the sector now with the entry of foreign brands," said Misra, "and one of the ways to deal with it would be to have marketing tie-ups with international chains who do not operate in the same markets as we do."
Misra, however, refused to name the companies but pointed out that none of the possible partners had significant presence in the India. "We are already in talks with two or three like-minded companies with whom we will have operating synergies," he said, holding up the Taj-Raffles alliance as an example of what the company is looking for.
According to their arrangement with the Singapore-based firm, Taj's luxury hotel line-up gets a mention at all the stalls put up by the Raffles group at trade shows in Asia Pacific, Europe and America.
Besides, the two companies also undertake other joint promotions and roadshows and also circulate each other's newsletters among their respective clientele, taking advantage of the synergy between the two chains in their hotel-locations.
Taj and Raffles also share marketing intelligence and sales leads and extend special prvileges to each other's loyalty-club members at their hotels.
Apart from the Raffles deal, Taj's strategy to attract international travellers, many of who go to its rivals due to higher brand recognition and loyalty schemes, has consisted of having 'nameboard' presence in its important source markets.
For example, it manages the Pierre hotel in New York, one of its biggest source markets and runs two hotels in Britain and has just acquired its first property in Australia, probably its
"We want to ensure that we have a presence across the key markets from which we get our visitors worldwide," said Anil P Goel, Senior Finance VP, "and our latest acquisition is part of that strategy."
With most of the global chains, including even the so-far reluctant ones like the Hilton, announcing rapid expansions into the country, the biggest operator in the home market has also been feeling the pressure.
The group will add two more international hotels to its current tally of 17 international hotels in the next two months. Both properties, a serviced apartment property in Dubai's Palm Island and a hotel in Bhutan, are being built with design inputs from the company which will run them for their owners.
Goel said the company would continue to rely on a mixture of investment and management-only approaches in its expansions abroad, with the investment option being left open for markets such as the west where Taj does not have enough brand recognition.
The company has been scouting for suitable acquisitions in the Chinese market, and Goel said a deal may soon come through in the Shanghai and Beijing markets.
The company has set apart around Rs 500 crores, partly from the supplementary stock issue last year, for financing its expansions in the country and outside over the next two years.
Goel also added that the company is currently working on four properties under its Indian Hotels unit and a Chennai unit under its joint venture with the Hyderabad based GFK Group. It is also developing seven budget hotels, under the 'Indione' brand, and will commission three of them in March next year.
The remaining four, Goel added, would be opened during the first quarter of the next financial year. The company has plans to open 50 such hotels over the next five years at an investment of around Rs 10 crore each.
Besides the domestic and Chinese market, Goel also pointed out that the company will also be scouting for expansion into South East Asia. Goel did not rule our further purchases from Hong Kong based Harilela group which has strong presence in the region.
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