PANAJI
The usual trend of raising hotel tariffs seems to have not yielded any dividend to hoteliers this time around. Rather, it was only by slashing rates or by maintaining it more or less flat that hotels managed to post decent occupancy rates in the tourist season which just concluded in April. Most hoteliers expect this trend to continue even in future as double digit growth in tariff per year seems like a thing of past.
Tourism stakeholders informed that hotels that were trying to make a killing by sharply increasing tariffs had to face low occupancy rates. Kunal Gujral, vice-president, sales & marketing, Resort Rio in Arpora, said, “The strategy of increasing tariffs in peak season didn’t really work this time. We, in fact, have kept our package prices static over last two years. By doing so, we have actually improved our occupancy by 18-20 per cent in FY 2015-16 over the previous year.”
However, other hotels faced an even tougher situation, particularly those which were focusing solely on foreign tourists.
Francis Fernandes, manager, Villa Fatima Beach Resort in Baga, said, “Russians comprise around 75 per cent of tourists at our resort. Their currency had depreciated substantially last year. In order to attract them, we had to slash our tariffs by 20-30 per cent. It was only then that we could post a 80-90 per cent occupancy rate during November 2015 to January 2016. But even with these slashed tariffs, our occupancy rate declined to 60-70 per cent in February and March this year.”
Russian currency has been under pressure for more than a year now. And, Russians formed a majority of foreign clientele of several hotels along the beach belt. Therefore, all such hotels had to face a tight situation. "Focusing on foreign tourists is already a thing of the past. At our resort, 90-93 per cent tourists were Indian in FY 2015-16," Gujral pointed out. Clearly, it was domestic tourists who saved the day for a number of resorts.
Hoteliers also feel that average tariffs aren’t going to increase at a high rate in future at all. The tourism sector in Goa grew rapidly between 2000 and 2010. Due to which, people expect 15-20 per cent growth in tariffs every year, which is simply not possible now.
Manuj Behal, general manager, Radisson Hotel in Candolim, said, “A number of hotels have opened up in the last few years due to which supply has increased. Therefore, tariffs aren’t going to go up significantly anymore like it used to happen earlier.”
****
OCCUPANCY RATES ON THE WANE
- The strategy of hiking tariffs in peak season backfired for many hotels
- With the Ruble depreciating, hotels depending on Russians took a hit
- Also, supply has increased as more hotels have mushroomed in recent years
