Hyatt to tap into India's golden age with luxury hospitality offerings: CEO

livemint.com:

Mint, Mark Hoplamazian, the global president and chief executive, outlined the company's strategy, emphasizing the importance of catering to its core clientele: high-end guests. Aligned with its strategy, Hyatt plans to introduce Miraval Resorts and Spas to India, recognizing the demand for luxury brands in the region, he added. “The brand will be perfect for India.

We believe that deeper understanding is actually the unlock for a better, deeper relationship with customers. They may spend more time with us because we understand local markets more." "That's different from saying we're just going to be ubiquitous, and going to have hotels everywhere and in every category and price point—supermarket style. We believe specialty stores are far better than supermarkets," Hoplamazian added.

India, which emerged as the company's fourth largest revenue-generating market, trails only the US, China and Japan. At present, Hyatt manages 48 properties across India, and plans to double this count within five years. The company operates multiple brands in India, including the Hyatt Regency, and JdV by Hyatt brand, and is set to launch the Ronil Goa and Hyatt Centric brands.

Moreover, as part of its "responsive strategy," the company is redefining its policy to incorporate smaller-inventory hotels for semi-urban markets, where demand for rooms could be as low as 80, or 100-120 rooms, indicating a departure from its earlier strategy to focus only on large-inventory city hotels. Currently, 25-30% of the company's global revenue comes from leisure hotels, with the category now accounting for over 55% of its portfolio, from 35-40% around six years ago. The company has also doubled its luxury room count and tripled the number of resorts