As a growing number of Indian travelers are looking to explore offbeat, non-tourist and non-crowded destinations for leisure trips, leading hotel brands are expanding their footprint in unexplored and drive-to destinations to cater to this growing demand.
For instance, Sarovar Hotels Resorts, which manages over 90 hotels in 55 destinations across India and overseas, recently added Sarovar Portico at Sasan Gir in Gujarat, which is at a driveable distance from Ahmedabad. This year, the Sarovar group also opened new hotels in Bodhgaya (Bihar), Panipat (Haryana), Somnath (Gujarat) — all within driveable distances from nearby cities.
“While hotels in metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata are not seeing much traction, smaller destinations such as Vrindavan (despite being a religious destination) and leisure destinations like Bhimtal (Uttarakhand), Palampur and Mashobra (Himachal Pradesh), which are drivable destinations from Delhi are doing extremely well,” said Nipun Vig, V-P, Operations, Sarovar Hotels, and Resorts.
The fear of Covid-19 risk in tourist hotspots and curiosity to explore new destinations are driving Indians to take the roads less traveled.
Sterling Holidays Resorts, one of India’s leading experiential holiday brands, also said that its hotels in Pallaveli in West Godavari (Andhra Pradesh), Anaikatti and Rajakkad (in Kerala) with access to thrilling adventures and wildlife are seeing huge traction from leisure travelers over the last few months.
Although a growing number of hotel and resort players are signing up for new hotels in undiscovered destinations, the overall new hotel additions are starkly less as compared to the previous year.
News Courtesy: TH
