Express Hospitality June 1-15, 2013

Spa A season for Ayurveda Management A culinary journey to traditional shores

Cousu main service Life A different service

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Business beckons ome June and the city of Bengaluru will ready itself to offer the Indian hospitality industry its foremost hospitality B2B trade show – Food Hospitality World. From June 12 to 14, the city will play host to the 20th edition of Food Hospitality World and as promised the show will deliver the best in terms of quality and business opportunities. From the world of kitchen equipments to F&B service, from the bakery basket to technology zone, there is a lot in the offing for buyers in the business.

India no doubt seems to be a promising hub of international sellers especially in the area of F&B service, equipments, chocolates, bakery ingredients, etc, hence the show will witness promising players from international markets especially Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. From beds and hand gloves, housekeeping to packaging there are new products which are scheduled to be on display.

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“The exclusive Italian pavilion is all set to conduct live cooking sessions with Italian products at the venue. One can interact with a host of Italian companies, who are specialists in the field ranging from pastas, pizzas, bakery products and ice-creams”

The exclusive Italian pavilion is all set to conduct live cooking sessions with Italian products at the venue. One can interact with a host of Italian companies, who are specialists in the field ranging from pastas, pizzas, bakery products and ice-creams. Apart from offering the delegates and guests a perfect platform for networking and business interactions, Food Hospitality World also offers its visitors some ‘food for thought’. Special seminars and discussion sessions will be held under the banner ‘Hospitality Think Tank’ and ‘Hospitality Knowledge Exchange’, wherein issues and trends related to the hospitality sector in India will be deliberated upon. From the GMs Conclave on the challenges and potential of South India as a hospitality hub to the futuristic topic on Intelligent Rooms: Plugging in, the venue promises to be an ideal place for some serious hospitality happenings.

Further, for the first time the 20th edition will introduce an all new competition, the Great Indian Bakery Challenge, dedicated to the bakery world. A well crafted bakery competition open to professionals in the bakery industry will be held at the venue during all three days. The test will be exclusively to check their skills in the bakery space, from breads to savouries. The show is getting bigger and focused with every passing year.

To welcome such trade shows, India too needs to seriously consider building better quality conference and convention venues like the way the SAARC and ASEAN countries have on offer, which are in close geographical proximity to India. Kerala is working towards building itself as a convention destination, Hyderabad does have the HICC, but these are not enough especially in a country which is considered as a promising business hub.

Reema Lokesh Editor editorial.eh@expressindia.com

Mobile: 09810264368 E-mail: 4pdesigno@gmail.com

CHENNAI: Vijay Kulkarni, FORTNIGHTLY INSIGHT FOR THE HOSPITALITY TRADE

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June 1-15, 2013

Contents June 1-15, 2013

Vol 8 No.16 JUNE 1-15, 2013

Chairman of the Board Viveck Goenka Editor Reema Lokesh* Assistant Editor Steena Joy Associate Editor Sudipta Dev

MARKET

MANAGEMENT

CONTENT TEAM

FAITH: Turning impossible to incredible India ..............08

Mumbai

JHM Interstate to manage Ramada

Sayoni Bhaduri, Kahini Chakraborty Kolkata

Amritsar & Ramada Alleppey........................................09

Joy Roy Choudhury

Food service industry in India to grow 11% by 2018 ....10

Editorial Associates

Taj Group keen to expand in African market ................11

Marcellus Baptista, H A Mishra,

Gateway Hotels on a robust expansion plan ..................12

Harpal Singh Sokhi,

ITQ launches Travelport Rooms and More in India ........13

P S Sundar, M S Ram

Ecolab to acquire Purate business from AkzoNobel ......14

Advisory Board

India gets its first Tune Hotel ........................................16

Anil Madhok, Rajeev Chopra, Santosh Shidhaye,

GoI to act as catalyst in tourism

Homi Aibara,

development: MoT report ............................................18

Param Kannampilly,

Indian metros preferred destinations for

K V Simon, Jiggs Kalra, Jose Dominic, Raju Shahani, N S Bhuie, Nirmal Khandelwal, Muralidharan Menon, Narendra Verma, Prakash Mankar, M Narayanan MARKETING General Manager Sachin Shenoy Marketing Team

overseas travellers: Hotels.com report ..........................19 apartmentstay looks to attract Indian travellers in the UK ....................................................................20

Cousu main service ..................................................34 Will the revised RBI guidelines allow struggling hotels to survive? ......................................36 Unconventionally luxurious ......................................38 A culinary journey to traditional shores ....................40 The village way ........................................................42

dinnerware and stemware ............................................21

Interveiw with K Sreekumar, managing director, The Quilon Beach Hotel & Convention Centre. ..................43

Supercold Refrigeration Systems set to launch new products ..............................................................23

Interveiw with Sudarshan Rai, marketing manager, Emirates Sleep Systems, India ....................................44

CSDO to launch 'The Chocolate Project'........................25

Survey reveals LGBT hotel guests spend more ............45

INTERIOR & DESIGN

Best General Managers of China accolade awarded to woman GM in HK....................................47

Arc International launches state-of-the-art

Dattaram Kandalkar, Rajan Nair Marketing Coordination

Design strategy..........................................................30

Darshana Chauhan Asst.Manager - Scheduling & Coordination

EDGE

Arvind Mane CIRCULATION Mohan Varadakar PRODUCTION General Manager B R Tipnis Production Manager Bhadresh Valia Layout

Interveiw with Michael Kistner, member of Board, Reznext ..................................................48

Ratilal Ladani, Kiran Parker Asst. Art Director Surajit Patro

Interveiw with Ayaz Basrai of The Busride .................26

Chief Designer Pravin Temble

AsiaRooms unveils results from Global Traveller Confidence Index 2013 ...........................................49

SPA & WELLNESS LIFE

Senior Graphic Designer Rushikesh Konka Photo Editor Sandeep Patil

Express Hospitality Reg.No.MH/MR/SOUTH-44/2013-15 RNI Regn. No.MAHENG/2005/21391.

Published by Vaidehi Thakar on behalf of the Proprietor The Indian Express Limited from Express Towers, 2nd floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 and Printed by her at the Indian Express Press, at Plot No.EL-208,TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400 710 (Editorial & Administrative :The Indian Express Ltd, 1st floor, Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai-400021).

Editor Reema Lokesh* (* Responsible for selection of matter under PRB Act) Copyright @ 2011

The Indian Express Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.

June 1-15, 2013

A season for Ayurveda ................................................28

A different service......................................................50

REGULARS

Editor’s Note ..............................................................................................................................................................06 New Kids on The Block..............................................................................................................................................22 Product Tracker..........................................................................................................................................................24 Movements ................................................................................................................................................................51 Weekend....................................................................................................................................................................98 www.expresshospitality.com

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Market LEAD STORY

Food Hospitality World 2013 set to open in Bengaluru EH STAFF - Mumbai

lobal Fairs & Media (GFML) brings to Bengaluru yet another enriching edition of Food Hospitality World.

Food Hospitality Word 2013 Bengaluru will be held at KTPO, Whitefield from June 1214, 2013. The trade show will be spread across 3600 sq metres with as many as 300 national and international exhibitors, all under one roof. The event will witness players from the international market especially Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

FHW will witness participation from importers, distributors, F&B managers, hotel and restaurant purchase managers, food service professionals, chefs and sommeliers, trade bodies, hoteliers, restaurateurs, caterers, food service professionals, hospitality interiors specifiers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, and more. Some of the key exhibitors at FHW 2013 Bengaluru include Celfrost Innovations, Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipment, Bharat Glass & Crockeries, Kiros Hospitality Solutions (DHS India), Nilkamal, Wang Hospitality (VINGCARD ELSAFE), Wang Professionals, Kaapi Machines, etc.

FHW aims at being the right channel allowing both, vendors/suppliers and hospitality professionals to come togeth-

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er to tap mutually beneficial business opportunities.

The three-day exhibition will host special events. Panel discussions under the banners Hospitality Think Tank (The Changing Dynamics of the Southern Market), Hospitality Knowledge Exchange (Intelligent Rooms: Plugging in), Power of Purchase will be key highlights of FHW 2013 Bengaluru.

Prominent and respected chefs from the city have also been roped in to conduct Live Cooking Demonstrations for visitors. Furthermore, for the first time the event will also witness a bakery competition The Great Indian Bakery Challenge that will be open to professionals in the bakery industry. The test will be exclusively to check their skills in the bakery space, from breads to savouries.

FHW merges two of Fiera Milano’s most successful exhibitions, Tuttofood (food and beverage) and Host (hospitality industry) with HospitalityWorld India’s leading hospitality trade show and Taste - Mumbai’s international food and beverage show; thus combining international and local expertise and creating the biggest professional B2B event for the Indian subcontinent’s food, drink and hospitality sectors. GFML is a company formed by Hannover Milan Fairs India and The Indian Express Group.

Food Hospitality World 2013 Bengaluru to be held at KTPO (Karnataka Trade Promotion Organisation), Plot No.121, Road No.5, EPIP 2nd Phase, Whitefield Industrial Area, Bengaluru

FAITH: Turning impossible to incredible India ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY - New Delhi

ooking at the growing role Indian tourism and hospitality can play in the growth trajectory of India, a cross-section of representatives from the top 10 national tourism industry associations have joined hands to form Federation of Association in Indian Tourism & Hospitality or FAITH. With the intention to have a ‘common voice’ for the industry, aimed at abetting tourism whilst evaluating opportunities and addressing challenges within the industry, this is the first of a kind approach by the associations to come forward and increase the number of tourists visiting India.

Speaking on the occasion, Parvez Dewan, secretary tourism, Government of India said that while there is no decline in the number of tourists coming to India, the momentum has been lost. “Though the December 16 Delhi gangrape has caused trouble for the tourism indus-

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try, there is a two to three per cent rise in the number of foreign tourist arrivals in the first quarter of 2013,” stated Dewan. Welcoming the initiative, Dewan lauded the efforts of the 10 associations in conceptualising FAITH and pledged the support of the tourism ministry to the federation. Though nothing is concrete yet, he said, the government is working on few more measures like no off-season, promoting the Himalayas and organising long festivals to promote tourism in India.

Earlier, while inaugurating the event, Nakul Anand, chairman, FAITH, and president, Hotel Association of India, highlighted the potential of the tourism industry, its challenges and the way forward.

“FAITH is a consolidated effort of the industry aimed towards creating awareness, particularly at the state level, on the economic imperatives of tourism. We aim to address and collectively brainstorm on the macro dynamics of the industry to ensure tourism its rightful place in India’s growth story,”

said Anand. Aashish Gupta, consultant CEO for FAITH, presented the FAITH mandate focusing on a pro-active approach with the Central and state government that would entail strategic ideation, policy inputs, government plan discussions and global branding initiatives amongst others. He also highlighted avenues like service tax, visa-on-arrival and skill development as avenues that FAITH would focus on aggressively.

FAITH, a non-government, not-forprofit Indian tourism and hospitalityled and managed society, aims at being a catalyst for the growth and development of the travel, tourism, hospitality, aviation, transport, convention, adventure and other related industries. It comprises 10 national industry associations including, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, Hotel Association of India, India Convention Promotion Bureau, Indian Association of Tour Operators, Indian Heritage Hotels

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Association, Indian Tourist Transporters Association, Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India, Travel Agents Association of India and the Travel Agents Federation of India.

In his vote of thanks, Sarabjit Singh, vice-chairman, FAITH, and chairman of the Indian Tourist Transporters Association, expressed his gratitude to all the founder members and to all those who had tirelessly toiled behind the scenes, since January 2011, to bring the idea of FAITH to fruition.

FHRAI Annual Convention to be held in Kochi in September 2013 June 1-15, 2013

JHM Interstate to manage Ramada Amritsar & Ramada Alleppey SAYONI BHADURI - Mumbai

otel management company JHM Interstate will be managing and operating Ramada Amritsar and Ramada Alleppey slated to open within this year. They are part of the four hotels that the company will start operating in 2013, informed Lloyd Lauland, executive director, JHM Interstate Hotels India.

Currently JHM Interstate has nine operational hotels in India. They have also signed a strategic development agreement with Marriott International for Fairfield by Marriott in India. “We are the only company that they are in

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gent systems within the portfolio, maintaining the current portfolio and owner relation-

ships and executing on the company's overall growth strategy, driving it to become

the premier independent hotel management company on the Indian sub-continent. JHM

Interstate India is a jv between Interstate Hotels & Resorts and JHM Hotels.

We have the flexibility to go to locations where big brands cannot go franchise with. Owners can reach out to either us or Marriott to associate with the brand,” said Lauland. Known internationally for their third party management format, JHM Interstate alliance in India is looking to establish themselves as a management company. “JHM Interstate is a multifaceted solutions company and third party management is just one part of it,” said Lauland. He added that the company will grow according to the locations where hotel developments are taking place. “We have the flexibility to go to locations where big brands cannot go.

This also why Tier III cities are not a challenge for us,” he continued.

Deepak Sarin recently joined JHM Interstate India as the COO. He will be responsible for India operations, including maintaining a dynamic team of hospitality experts, integrating and supporting the company's intelliJune 1-15, 2013

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Food service industry in India to grow 11% by 2018 NRAI launches India Food Service Report 2013 SAYONI BHADURI – Mumbai

he Indian food service industry stands at the current valuation of `2,50,000 crore. By 2018, the industry is expected to grow by 11 per cent making food service industry a `4,08,040 crore industry.

Samir Kuckreja, president, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and founder-CEO of Tasanaya Hospitality added, “Out this almost 70 per cent is in the unorganised sector which is an improvement from 2010 when the unorganised segment accounted for 84 per cent of the industry.” Kuckreja was speaking at the launch of India Food Service Report 2013 by NRAI and Technopak Advisors.

The report revealed that the food service industry creates 4.6 million direct jobs and seven to eight million indirect employment opportunities. By 2018 the combined number is expected to grow to 20 million. Saloni Nangia, president, Technopak Advisors spoke of how the

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socio-economic impact of the food service industry has not been dealt with yet and needs more work. “It is a US$ 48 billion industry which is bigger than many other industries in India and it touches everyone across spectrum of demography. It is an industry which absorbs people from all background and levels of education. Not only that it provides opportunities to upgrade skills and go up the ladder. `12000 crore is generated by

taxes and this number can become `20,000-25,000 crore if the unorganised sector can be brought into the folds of organised segment,” said Kuckreja appealing to the law makers to look at the sector seriously.

Discussing the challenges of the industry Amit Jatia, NRAI, chapter head, Mumbai and vice chairman, Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald’s India - West & South) said that high tax percentage, mul-

tiplicity of licenses and their duration, FSSAI norms, project financing, etc, are some that need urgent attention. He added, “We request the ministry that when regulations are being formed industry consensus should be taken into account. The application process for license should be put up online and if some changes can be made in labour laws especially for women allowing them to work with more flexibility.”

Foodpanda to expand to six new cities by year-end SAYONI BHADURI - Mumbai

ne year old food delivery website Foodpanda is looking at going live in six more cities by end of 2013. Rohit Chadda, co-founder, FoodPanda said, “Three of these cities are expected to go live in next three months.” He added that with these new cities on the website, there will be as many as 5000 restaurants who will be listed. It aspires to target a network base of more than 15,000 restaurants across 20 cities by 2015.

Geographically Foodpanda has the largest presence in India present in 10 locations Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Chandigarh - with more than 1800 restaurants and many more tie-ups in the

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Rohit Chadda pipeline. Globally the company is present in 27 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, South East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Each country has it own operative unit and decisions pertaining each is www.expresshospitality.com

autonomous. Foodpanda has secured more than US$ 20 million funding from a group of investors among them Investment AB Kinnevik and Phenomen Ventures.

Describing the USP of the website Chadda said, “We have concentrated on user experience and are constantly evolving the product. The mainstay of a website like this is based on repeat business and customer experience and service is very crucial to this. We make the effort of connecting with the restaurants on almost all levels – phone calls, SMS, our own software and hardware.

We stay connected to the customer at all times.” Apart from special deals and discounts for FoodPanda users, Chadda says that customers order lists can be saved along with contact data. Also customers can pre-order up to 36 hours in advance. For the

restaurants he added that the website would provide a strong online presence and an extension for revenue.

Foodpanda’s revenue model is based on commissions on orders placed through the website; the software and hardware installations are included in this.

Success rate of food ordering websites have been low in India, Chadda commented, “In an e-commerce set up the capital requirement is very low and setting up shop is not difficult. It is the sustenance and execution which is the challenge.”

FoodPanda has introduced smart phone Apps as well.

Chadda informed that they have seen 10,000 downloads in last month from India itself. “Mobile is an important platform and a great growth agent and we are seeing 20 per cent increase week-on-week.”

June 1-15, 2013

Taj Group keen to expand in African market KAHINI CHAKRABORTY Durban

he Indian luxury brand Taj Group is keen on expanding its footprint in the African market. This decision has been taken as the Taj Cape Town has been well received in the market.

Talking on the sidelines of the recently concluded Indaba 2013, Michael Pownall, general manager, Taj Cape Town informed that the group is considering expansion where the parent company Tata Group has business interests, which include Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and many more. The company already has a property in Zambia.

“The expansion will be mainly through management contracts and the

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June 1-15, 2013

Michael Pownall company is hoping to add more properties by yearend. The expansion decision has been taken after the Taj Cape Town brand has been well received in

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the market as the primary agenda was to first make the Cape Town property stable and successful and then look at expansion,” he said. Asked as to which brand would be suitable for the expansion, Pownall opined that the Vivanta by Taj would be appropriate for the market instead of the luxury Taj Hotels.

Elaborating on the challenges that the property had to witness post its launch, Pownall said, “Taj Cape Town, which opened in March 2010 before the Soccer World Cup, initially witnessed a difficult period.

Although the World Cup helped us, considering we were new and many hotels opened during the same period there was an oversupply of hotel rooms in the market. However, 2012 was a good year for the des-

tination and the hotel industry as occupancies increased from 40 per cent to 61 per cent. Majority of the guests are South Africans followed by those from the US, India (18 per cent), UK and Germany.”

Pownall is working towards creating awareness about the hotel and has witnessed an increase in arrivals as a result. “We believe that we have to constantly keep living up to the high benchmark standards set by the group. We would like to see the volumes of leisure travellers increasing to our hotel. And India will become the third or fourth biggest source market for Africa in the coming years.

According to me, there are chances of more growth from regional leisure and business travellers,” he added.

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Gateway Hotels on a robust expansion plan Target of 100 properties in next five to six years SUDIPTA DEV - Hubli

ith the recent opening of Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts now has 22 operating properties in India, with nine/ten more hotels opening in the next 18 months.

“We have 20 more projects signed up. My target is 100 Gateway Hotels in six to seven years time,” said Prabhat Verma, chief operating officer, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts.

A majority of the upcoming projects are greenfield.

The focus is on aspirational cities and newer destinations of India. “This brand has allowed us to reach out in a robust and defined way. We are getting into those cities and those areas of a city where we did not have a presence. We do not even mind having three Gateways in a city or a remote area where we see the potential for future,” stated Verma. He believes that the power of social media and technology has made urban professionals worldwide the same and one should not underestimate any city in India, “The two tier/ three tier concept is only in the mind. A Gateway Hotel can range from 50-60 rooms to 200-250 rooms depending on the buoyancy of the market, the location,

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the investor/ partner, etc. For any good hotel to be profitable it has to be more than 90 rooms.”

Verma pointed out that the brand is still evolving.

For the Taj Group, The Gateway Hotels & Resorts was conceptualised as a brand in 2007-2008 to bridge a major gap in the market.

“As a philosophy of what the Gateway stands for is getting into shape right now, it has been a long five years wait for us. In many ways the Gateway Hubli is a prototype of what the brand has been

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envisaged. We are looking at that part of the market that consists of urban nomads, people who are on the move and are travelling extensively within India,” he said. The target clientele includes all sets of people - IT/pharma professionals, students and academicians, families on short excursion or pilgrimage, etc. “The Gateway brand stands for flexibility, simplicity, comfort, but is still fivestar. It is a familiar kind of a hotel that allows you to be you,” mentioned Verma. The room rate for each Gateway

property ranges between `4500 to `7500 per night.

Each hotel will have a large diner, a 24x7 outlet, which will have popular multi cuisine options with a strong focus on local cuisine.

A relaxed contemporary bar and large banqueting space with 4000-5000 sq feet area.

However, when a Gateway property is in a city, eg in Kolkata or Chennai or Pune there will be a speciality restaurant; a Schezwan Chinese restaurant like in Chennai. “We are also utilising the terraces of new hotels - in Raipur, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata, a lounge bar concept with Global Gateway Grill,” informed Verma.

As many as 50 per cent of guests staying at Gateway Hotels are international travellers. One of the interesting concepts that is being launched with the Hubli property is the 'Explore' map. “The interest is to look out at what else is around the periphery of this place.

In three and half hours you can go from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi to Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary to the coast of Gokarna. That is how 'Explore' opens up multiple options,” stated Verma. His team is focusing on each city now to find what else they can offer to the guests in terms of a destination.

June 1-15, 2013

ITQ launches Travelport Rooms and More in India EH STAFF - New Delhi

nterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ), a strategic business unit of InterGlobe Enterprises has launched Travelport Rooms and More for the Indian market. The product offers smarter, more efficient and evolved booking services to travel agents. It is aimed at improving a travel agent’s productivity through the availability of a wide variety of hotel booking options in the hospitality domain. J B Singh, CEO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient said, “India is an extremely important evolved market for ITQ and and we see great business potential here. Internet penetration and easy access to information has empowered the consumers, they are now looking for quicker turnaround to book their flights and hotel rooms. Emerging trends such as these have helped sync the launch of Travelport Rooms and More in line with the need for technologies that allow travel agents to increase efficiency, save time and ensure accuracy in booking, thereby serving customers better.”

Travelport Rooms and More is a web-based (UI) hotel price comparison and booking engine. It serves as a one stop shop for travel agents to search, shop and book from a choice of more than 6,00,000 hotel properties with over a million offers available across these properties. Currently, the inventory accessible to both corporate and leisure travel agents in India stands at 90,000 properties across the world. Travelport Rooms and More offers travel agents a wider choice of accommodation and complete transparency while booking and engaging with customers; shopping, booking and managing reservations can be undertaken on a single platform, while also tracking and facilitating the receipt of the commission from a single source; saves time and simplifies the agent’s work through the use of a single,

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password protected sign-in; the booking engine combines meta-search technology that sources unparalleled hotel content from the

world’s largest aggregators such as booking.com, Destination of The World, easybook, Fastbooking, Agoda and

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quickbeds.com.

It comes enhanced with hotel reviews, images and rental car content. Used in six languages across 70

countries Travelport Rooms and More can be used by all the travel agents, irrespective of the GDS they use.

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Ecolab to acquire Purate business from AkzoNobel EH STAFF - Mumbai

colab has reached an agreement to acquire AkzoNobel’s Purate business, which specialises in global antimicrobial water treatment technology. With 2012 revenue of approximately US$ 23 million, the Purate business provides patented, proprietary chlorine dioxide programmes for use in a wide array of water treatment applications. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory clearances and other standard closing conditions.

“Chlorine dioxide is recognised as an antimicrobial agent to control biologic growth primarily in cooling towers and a wide variety of other industrial water treatment applications,” said Timothy Mulhere, executive vice president and president,

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global water and process services, Ecolab. “Purate’s patented technologies complement our offerings globally, including our 3D TRASAR technology programmes,

which help address our customers’ needs for clean water within industrial manufacturing and lower total cost of operations,” he added.

3D TRASAR technology

combines chemistry, remote services and monitoring and controls to improve a range of industrial operations to help customers reduce water use, improve energy efficien-

cy and lower total cost of operations. 3D TRASAR cooling water technology has been recognised with a United States Presidential Green Chemistry Award.

Treehouse Group signs up new property in Ranthambore EH STAFF - Mumbai

he Treehouse Group has announced its foray into the leisure destination with an upcoming property at Ranthambore, Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. The property which will be called Anuraga - A Treehouse Resort is a full service five star hotel, which restores one of Ranthambore's oldest hotels, the Anuraga Resort into a modern complex with a traditional inheritance.

The resort is an important new addition to the Treehouse group, which manages various hospitality concepts across the country.

Anuraga - A Treehouse Resort will have 40 rooms, four suites, a banquet hall, swimming pool, gardens, conference facility, spa and gym as well as restaurant and bar. The resort will be operational from October 2013. Visitors to the resort will also be able to visit Shabri Farm and Dairy, an organic farm.

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India gets its first Tune Hotel EH STAFF - Mumbai

une Hotels has launched its first hotel in India. The 100-room Tune Hotel Ahmedabad apart from its standard single and double rooms, will be introducing family rooms that can accommodate between four to six people in order to meet the needs of the Indian guests, especially in the wedding market. Apart from properties in major cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai – Tune Hotels is focusing on Tier-two and

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Tier-three cities along with hotels in the tourist triangle destinations of Agra, Jaipur and Delhi. The company plans to have five to six hotels in Gujarat as part of the 20 planned hotels across India in the next three years.

“Ahmedabad is a vibrant city in the fast growing state of Gujarat and we are looking to welcome both business and leisure travellers.

We are excited about this hotel as it marks our brand’s very first entry into India’s hospitality market. The Tune Hotel Ahmedabad aims to serve both domestic travellers and visitors from

abroad, especially members of the large non-resident Indian (NRI) community from Gujarat settled in places like the US, Britain and the Gulf, who may already have had prior knowledge of the brand in the five countries we are already present in,” said Mark Lankester, group CEO, Tune Hotels.

“With a view to the huge wedding market in India, the hotel is able to cater to the needs for major banquet facilities for that total wedding experience. In fact, we’ve taken bookings for our very first wedding

entourage already,” he added.

Commenting on the prospects for Tune Hotels in India, Lankester opined, “India’s domestic hospitality market in total is huge and the major international brands all have a focus on the country. We see strong growth in both business and tourist segments as the domestic economy remains resilient. India’s middle class is expanding and rising disposable incomes have boosted travel. We are in a good position to offer quality affordable accommodation to these travel groups.”

Ascott wins awards at Mob-Ex Awards in Singapore EH STAFF - Mumbai

he Ascott Limited has been awarded the Gold and Bronze awards for Best Mobile Site and Best User Experience respectively at the inaugural Mob-Ex Awards 2013 in Singapore recently.

Last year, the Singaporebased Ascott launched its mobile-friendly brand websites and online chat facility to enable online bookings on the go and real-time response to customers' questions.

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Tony Soh, chief corporate officer, Ascott said, “Ascott is proud to be recognised at the premier Mob-Ex Awards that celebrates mobile excellence.

The tech-savvy customers of today want fast and convenient access to information while on the go. The launch of our mobilefriendly websites and online chat facility enables us to better reach out to our guests wherever they are, whenever they choose and whatever platform they pre-

fer to use.”

“Connectivity is vital for our guests. Many of them carry at least one mobile device and use wi-fi, and this trend has been increasing every year. Providing free internet and wi-fi will enable them to stay connected at all times. We will be progressively boosting bandwidth to meet the increasing data demand by our guests. This is part of Ascott's continuous pursuit of product and service excellence to enhance customer

experience,” he added.

Besides the 96-unit Citadines Richmond Bangalore and the 187-unit Somerset Greenways Chennai, Ascott plans to open five more properties with over 1,100 apartment units in India by 2015. They are Citadines Galleria Bangalore, Citadines OMR Gateway Chennai, Somerset Whitefield Bangalore, Citadines Hitec City Hyderabad and Citadines Parimal Garden Ahmedabad.

CII to organise Tourism Fest 2013 in December ABHISHEK CHAKRABORTY - New Delhi

he Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will be organising an international tourism festival from December 5-7, 2013 in Chandigarh, with an aim to boost tourism and hospitality industry and showcase the immense potential of the eight northern states of India.

Jayant Davar, chairman, CII northern region and co-chairman and managing director, Sandhar Technologie, revealed that the first ever CII ‘Tourism Fest’ will be organised in partnership with all northern state governments with a lot of domestic as well international participation.

Punjab and Chandigarh will be the host states and CII is in talks with other states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and

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Jammu & Kashmir to partner in this unique venture.

Talking about international participation, Davar said, “Thailand and Dubai have already confirmed their participation and we are expecting participation from countries like Germany, South Africa, the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Britain, etc.”

CII will also invite chief ministers of all northern states at the conclave and create a chief ministers’ forum to address various issues like infrastructure, connectivity, security, cleanliness, accommodation, food and travel which hinder the growth of tourism. “We would also push all states to have a tourism policy in place,” said Arjun Sharma, chairman, CII Tourism Fest 2013 and managing director, Le

Passage to India.

Speaking about the immense employment opportunities and the potential of tourism in India, Sharma said, “The tourism sector grew at a rate of four per cent last year globally as compared to the manufacturing sector which grew at less than two per cent. Looking at the potential of tourism, the Government of India has allocated US $ one trillion in the 12th Five Year Plan for tourism.

Considering our great heritage, beautiful locations and cheaper medical facilities, there is an immense potential of tourism in India. We only need to brand it well.”

“The northern states are keen to seek fresh investments and forge new partnerships in tourism and hospitality sectors that would in turn help create lot of jobs and lead to

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inclusive growth. The Tourism Fest is an effort to create a platform for northern states to showcase their potential to play host to the world,” added Sharma.

The various stakeholders that would participate in addition to state governments include hoteliers, hospitals, tour operators, travel agents, golf courses and resorts, central and state government tourism agencies, tourism board of various countries, airlines, airports, air charters companies, city transport providers, railways and IRCTC, industry experts in hospitality and tourism, etc.

Apart from B2B meet, the Tourism Fest 2013 will also include international dance shows, national and international food festivals, golf tournament; international chef meet, leisure and excursion trips, etc.

June 1-15, 2013

GoI to act as catalyst in tourism development: MoT report EH STAFF - Mumbai

he role of the Government of India (GoI) in tourism development has been redefined from that of a regulator to that of a catalyst.

Apart from marketing and promotion, the focus of tourism development plans is now on integrated development of enabling infrastructure through effective partnership with various stakeholders. As per the working strategy for the 12th five year plan the ministry of tourism (MoT) has adopted a ‘propoor tourism’ approach which could contribute significantly to poverty reduction. This has been stated in the annual report of MoT for the year 2012-13.The report stated that MoT has been making sustained efforts to augment the tourism infrastructure across the country.

Detailed discussions were held with the state and Union Territory governments to prioritise projects to be taken up

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for funding during the year 2012-13 and out of the 54 mega tourism projects identified, 40 have already been sanctioned till the end of January 2013. The mega projects are a judicious mix of culture, heritage, spiritual and eco-tourism and aim to give tourists a holistic perspective. According to the report, more than half of MoT's plan budget is channelised for funding the development of destinations, circuits, mega projects as also for rural tourism infrastructure projects.

MoT ensured that 10 per cent and 2.5 per cent of its total annual plan outlay went to the tourism projects in the North-Eastern region and the tribal areas respectively. The annual report also stated that under the ‘Hunar se Rozgaar’ scheme of the ministry the addition of more trades/training areas like drivers, golf caddies, stone mason, security guards and tourist facilitators etc. has been a significant step to reduce the skill gap

effecting the hospitality and tourism sector. During the last financial year, 21,175 persons were trained under this initiative up to January 31, 2013.

Innovative approaches are being adopted by the ministry to augment the training output and to reach newer areas.

Such initiatives include the training of sentenced prisoners at various jails, training of physically challenged persons (deaf and dumb), training of children home inmates, and heritage, heritage walk escorts and training to providers, nature guides etc. To ensure the contribution of tourism in the development of remote and backward areas in the country, 2.5 per cent of total plan outlay of MoT from 201213 was earmarked for tribal areas under Tribal Sub Plan (TSP). The mega projects are a judicious mix of culture, heritage, spiritual and ecotourism and aim to give tourists a holistic perspective.

The scheme of rural tourism was started by the ministry in 2002-03 with the

objective of showcasing rural life, art, culture and heritage at rural locations and in villages. Rural tourism projects at 186 villages in 29 states/union territories have been sanctioned by MoT since the inception of the scheme. 56 of these sites are located in the North-Eastern region. The ministry has also decided to bring hospitality education into the mainstream through government vocational schools, industrial training institutes (ITIs), polytechnic institutes, government colleges, universities and public sector undertakings. The central assistance will be available to all. The assistance can be utilised for creation of infrastructure necessary for the conduct of courses/training. Under the policy of broad-basing of hospitality education, grants have so far been provided to 31 ITIs, seven degree colleges, four polytechnics, 26 schools and 15 universities to start new hospitality courses.

HVS India releases India Hotel Unit Compensation study EH STAFF - Mumbai

he India Hotel Unit Compensation Study, presented by HVS Executive Search, India provides current and credible information concerning salary trends across all job roles in a hotel hierarchy.

The survey findings assist in benchmarking salary, structuring compensation and enabling companies to attract and retain talent through equitable compensation practices.

Coauthored by Natwar Nagar, executive search managing director, HVS and Anupama Jaiswal, associate director, HVS. India Hotel Unit Compensation Study includes data from 196 hotels across 54 cities in India, reporting on 70 positions across the entire hotel hierarchy.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of

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salary and benefits, HVS India analysed the total annual compensation for each job role in the luxury, upscale, mid market and budget segments.

Additionally, the report includes a snapshot view of the critical benchmarks that hotel owners and operators typically like to determine, in order to plan and fore-

cast their budgets related to payroll cost and revenue.

The survey results for the 70 positions studied are categorised by: total annual compensation and total annual compensation excluding variable pay.

Based on the above categories, data has been reported on: national overview, metropolitan/non

The report includes a snapshot view of the critical benchmarks that hotel owners and operators typically like to determine, in order to plan and forecast their budgets related to payroll cost and revenue www.expresshospitality.com

metropolitan overview. For the room count overview the data has been analysed for each hotel market positioning by room inventory and reported on: Luxury hotels: with more than 200 rooms/ with less than or equal to 200 rooms; Upscale hotels: with more than 200 rooms/ with less than or equal to 200 rooms; Mid-market hotels: with more than 100 rooms/with less than or equal to 100 rooms; Budget hotels: with more than 100 rooms/with less than or equal to 100 rooms.

The data for this report has been provided by the individual hotels directly.

To ensure accuracy and confidentiality, data is presented for positions based on the job responsibility and only for those positions and criteria for which at least five participating hotels provided data.

June 1-15, 2013

Indian metros preferred destinations for overseas travellers: Hotels.com report EH STAFF - Mumbai

ccording to the latest Hotel Price Index (HPI) report by Hotels.com, Indian metros dominate the top 10 favourite Indian destinations list amongst international travellers. The capital city of India, New Delhi bagged the number one spot as the most preferred Indian destination for overseas travellers, followed by Mumbai. Other popular destinations for travellers include Bengaluru,

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fourth spot, Hong Kong on the fifth, Phuket on the seventh spot and Kuala Lumpur

on the ninth. New York and Las Vegas represent America on the list which bagged the

eighth and tenth spots respectively. London was the sole representative from

Europe being on sixth spot while Dubai bagged the third position.

The HPI report also revealed that south east Asian destinations dominated the top 10 favourite destinations list amongst Indian travellers while travelling abroad Chennai and Agra on the fourth, fifth and seventh positions respectively. Goa, the famous beach and leisure destination of India was the third most favourite destination among foreign travellers while Jaipur, was on the sixth spot.

The HPI report also revealed that south east Asian destinations dominated the top 10 favourite destinations list amongst Indian travellers while travelling abroad. According to the report, the great value rates available in Bangkok make it the most preferred international destination amongst Indians. Singapore was ranked at number two on the list while Pattaya was on the June 1-15, 2013

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apartmentstay looks to attract Indian travellers in the UK Benefits of significant cost savings and kitchen facilities SUDIPTA DEV - Mumbai

partmentstay that provides serviced apartment accommodation in the UK and European cities is focused on attracting Indian travellers with the many benefits that are perfectly suited for visitors from the country.

“In the Indian market we are looking at larger families, FITs, individual travellers who are looking to stay for more than a week. This will be more economical than a hotel and the major advantage is that they have kitchen facilities so they will be able to prepare their own meals making the holiday more affordable,” said Wasim Ud Din, managing director, apartmentstay.

The company covers 45 to 50 buildings in London.

On an average each building has 15 apartments, the smallest has five while the largest building has 100 apartments.

These range from three star budget apartments to five star super luxury. “The latter has been popular with highend Indian travellers and also Bollywood personalities,” added Ud Din. apartmentstay provides serviced apartments in cities

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in UK like Birmingham, Manchester, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, etc, besides in important European countries like in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland.

Currently, the major market for these apartments is the Middle East but India is a growing segment for the company. “We believe it is the right product for the Indian market. The Indian travellers now regularly travel to Europe. Initially they may have travelled on group tour packages but now as FIT travellers we hope they will look at options other than hotels which will reduce the cost

of their vacation,” said Ud Din, pointing out that a serviced apartment compared to a hotel of similar category is at least 20 - 25 per cent cheaper. Apart from the benefit of space, privacy, kitchen facilities further save more cost.

Explaining why serviced apartments are more suitable for the Indian traveller than a hotel, Ud Din stated, “Indians are quite fussy about food so a fully functional kitchen works best for them. They can even bring food from outside / takeaway, as these apartments

are home away from home.

The apartments are also perfect for families - ranging from one to three bedrooms, where everyone can stay together rather than being in a hotel and having separate rooms. They can sit together in their own lounge and dining room.”

Like hotels these serviced apartments have a check-in/ check out, daily cleaning Monday to Friday. The only thing missing is F&B, which is taken care of by a fully equipped kitchen with cutlery, crockery and kitchen utensils as well.

hotel each in China, Vietnam, Dubai, Qatar and Thailand and two hotels in Abu Dhabi. Minor Hotel Group has a total 87 hotels under their umbrella. A new hotel brand Avani was launched in 2012. “This is an affordable luxury product and two hotels are operational in Sri Lanka,” said Walsh-Hédouin. More Avani hotels are to launch in Vietnam and Malaysia. “The aim of introducing a new brand was to offer developers a variety to choose from,” she added.

MHG often shares stakes in the projects that it takes on.

Walsh-Hédouin explained that to introduce new brands it is important to to own and manage the first few properties, it gives credence to the brand and our

ability to do a good job.

“Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) of Abu Dhabi and MHG tieup for the five hotel is a testament of our success,” she added.

Six months ago Anantara opened their sales office in India. Shannon Creado, regional director of sales – India, Anantara Hotel Resorts and Spas said, “We have been tying up with travel partners for product training.

It is important to do this as they need to know how is Anantara is different from other brands.” India generates good business for Anantara's hotels in Dubai and Thailand. “For our Thailand properties we have seen many direct bookings.

Maldives is also getting popular,” he added.

Anantara builds hope on India SAYONI BHADURI - Mumbai

hailand based Minor Hotel Group and their flagship brand Anantara is looking at India not just to introduce the brand here but also as a source market.

Marion Walsh-Hédouin, VP marketing communications and PR, Minor Hotel Group said, “We are definitely looking at bringing Anantara to India, but it is still a couple of years till we open the first hotel.

We will also look at bringing the Avani brand to India as well.” The company is looking at properties in Mahabalipuram, Rajasthan, Goa, Varanasi (UP) and Kerala.

Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu) is a luxury villa project which should be up and running in about two

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Marion Walsh-Hédouin years and the other two will follow that.

Currently they have 22 operational hotels globally.

Seven more Anantara hotels are opening in 2013 – one www.expresshospitality.com

June 1-15, 2013

Arc International launches state-of-the-art dinnerware and stemware EH STAFF - Mumbai

rc International has announced the launch of state-ofthe-art dinnerware and stemware under their food service brands Arcoroc and Chef & Sommelier. The featured collections include signature Loona dinnerware and Salto tumblers under Arcoroc, and Open Up and Vinarmony stemware from the Chef & Sommelier brand.

The Arcoroc Loona Opal dinnerware offers a white design to highlight the signature dishes created by chefs.

The professional material of choice, Opal dinnerware is fully tempered glass, which results in two-three times more strength than other materials, yet light and easy to maintain. The tempering process results in providing an extra hard surface that offers superior scratch, fade and dishwasher resistance. It is 100 per cent food safe, heat retentive, and microwavable.

The dinnerware set includes a 12” service plate, 10” dinner plate, 8” starter/dessert plate, 6” side plate, small bowl, soup bowl and pasta plate.

The drinkware offer from Aarcoroc features Salto tumblers in both high ball and old fashioned styles. The colour variations available are ice blue and pink in sets of six each.

Chef & Sommelier’s Open Up and Vinarmony stemware collections are designed to bring out the best in wines and enhance the wine tasting experiences of customers.

Developed from Kwarx material, Chef & Sommelier glasses are transparent, resistant and bright. With its artisan design, Vinarmony combines classic lines with lightness and balance. The four bowls are the perfect choice for serving the most prestigious wines, whether white, red or sparkling. Open Up, on the other hand is a range of glasses with a contemporary design. It is suitable for all types of young wines and the different models in the range cater for the majority of wine varieties produced worldwide.

Mayank Sharma, GM,

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Arc International said, “The Arcoroc and Chef & Sommelier brands have

been well received by the Indian hospitality sector.

We are happy with the

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response and hope that we continue to provide the highest service and quality

standards to all restaurant and hospitality chains in the future too.”

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M|A|R|K|E|T QUICK BYTES

New kids on the block The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli

The Gateway Hotels & Resorts has launched of The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli. This will be the fourth Gateway branded hotel in Karnataka, in addition to the existing hotels at Bengaluru, Mangalore and Chikmagalur. The Gateway Hotel Lakeside Hubli has 92 spacious rooms including four suites, each room offering serene views of Lake Unkal. The hotel has a spacious 3800 sq ft ballroom for large meetings, conferences and weddings.

Absolute Hotel Services India Absolute Hotel Services India has announced new management contracts with Delta Corporation to manage two new hotels in Daman and Goa under their Deltin brand of which one is operating and another one will open within this year. Deltin Suites, a 106-room hotel located in Nerul Goa has facilities which include an all day dining restaurant, a bar and 24x7 lounge, spa with two treatment rooms, a large courtyard swimming pool, gym, entertainment zone and kids play area as well as banquet space for business or leisure gathering.

The Deltin Daman will be a five-star deluxe hotel with more than 35,000 sq ft space for a large casino facility with bars and restaurants, located in Daman featuring 186 rooms and suites. For conferences and events, there are a grand ballroom and four small function rooms with total space of 16,000 sq ft and parking space for over 250 cars.

INTERNATIONAL The State Hermitage Hotel, St Petersburg, Russia

national fare, Chinese cuisine, Italian flavours and Spanish/South American cuisine.

Mystic Point, Hong Kong Disneyland

Hotel Xenia, London Hotel Xenia is located on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, London. The Victorian building has been restored, and boasts of 99 contemporary guestrooms. The hotel can also cater for events in its private dining room, accommodating up to 14 guests. A multipurpose function room is also available, with capacity for up to 80 guests, either for board meetings, cocktail parties and screenings.

Le Méridien Bali Jimbaran Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and PT Tiara Raya Bali International have announced the The State Hermitage Hotel is scheduled to open in summer 2013 and will be the only official hotel of the State Hermitage Museum. The hotel is located in the City Center District, on Pravda Street which is part of Dostoevsky’s St Petersburg, Russia. The Official State Hermitage Hotel offers 126 rooms and suites, each decorated in a unique style: with hardwood floors, soft lighting and materials with colour scheme which are all inspired by the interior of the State Hermitage Museum. There are several connecting rooms and rooms which are specially equipped for travellers with physical disabilities. The main restaurant is named after Catherine the Great - the founder of the Hermitage.

Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai Kempinski Hotels has signed an agreement with Shanghai Suncuba to take over the management of the Gran Meliá Hotel Shanghai in Pudong, Shanghai. Opened in February 2010, the hotel has been rebranded as Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai and became the group’s 18th property in China. The hotel features 678 rooms and suites, the majority of which overlooks the Bund skyline.

The rooms are contemporary in design and range from 43 to 245 square metres in size. The hotel has four restaurants and three bars offering inter-

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Mystic Point, the final chapter of Hong Kong Disneyland’s current expansion project has officially opened. Rich in storytelling, Mystic Manor, an allnew, original attraction within Mystic Point, is home to brand new characters, special effects and architecture. Guests in every vehicle will get a frontrow seat experience of the 40 visual effects created by different technologies and 36 projectors, including four ultra-high-definition (4k) projectors.

Shangri-La Bosphorus, Istanbul debut of Le Méridien Bali Jimbaran. Le Méridien Bali Jimbaran offers four distinct dining venues in a three-story complex, including the signature restaurant Bamboo Chic, featuring Pan-Asian flavours fused with an authentic Balinese palate and made with organic ingredients sourced from the local Bedugul Mountain area; Smoqee Lounge & Sky Bar with hand-crafted cocktails; Latitude 8, offering coffee by day and wines and tapas by night in the hotel’s Hub; and WALA, a casual spot for gelato and coffee.

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Istanbul welcomed its newest luxury hotel with the opening of the Shangri-La Bosphorus, Istanbul.

The 186-room hotel is the second in Europe for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. Set on the European side of the Bosphorus Strait between the Dolmabahce Palace and Naval Museum, Shangri-La Bosphorus, Istanbul overlooks Istanbul’s domes and minarets and the green hills of the city’s Asian shores. The hotel takes design cues from the Dolmabahce Palace with swathes of marble, chandeliers and a mix of European, Asian and Turkish design.

June 1-15, 2013

Supercold Refrigeration Systems set to launch new products EH STAFF - Mumbai

u p e r c o l d Refrigeration Systems is all set to launch new products this financial year. The company recently celebrated its 40th year of operations in the Indian commercial refrigeration market.

Supercold’s wide range of products include: ice cube making machines, chest type deep freezers and coolers, vertical reach in freezer and cooler, worktop/undercounter refrigerators and back bar refrigerators, platelet incubators. Its customers include star hotels and resorts across several

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classifications, bars, restaurants, coffee houses, amusement parks, retail outlets, flight kitchens, shops, fast food joints, bakeries and pastry shops.

Patriarch Chandy Sam, managing director, Supercold Refrigeration Systems said, “Over the years, we have added a number of products into our portfolio, with a major emphasis on improving our products and making available superior world class products to our customers at a lower cost. All products manufactured by Supercold pass stringent quality control tests and therefore uphold high quality stan-

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Over the years, we have added a number of products to our portfolio, with a major emphasis on making available superior world class products at a lower cost

dards and are well accepted by the hospitality industry.

All Supercold products are environment friendly and CFC free.”

The company is committed to provide the best quality products and services to clients by fostering open communication with our clients, employees, and vendors. “We pledge to continually support our clients throughout their products life cycles. Our goal is to maintain client confidence long after our systems have been commissioned” added the son Sam Chandy, vice president – operations, Supercold Refrigeration Systems.

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Airwick Ever Fresh Gel Reckitt Benckiser India has launched Airwick Ever Fresh Gel, a long lasting gel for the bathroom segment. It comes with a two compartment design that gives a flexibility to control the product longevity as well as fragrance intensity for their bathrooms.

up to 210 Bar. The Cooper Three Cylinder Engines come equipped with Built in Lube oil cooler, Hydraulic tappets with roller follower and Cylinder head cast in Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI). These stand-apart genre of power generators is entirely produced at Cooper Corporation’s assembly plant located at Satara, Maharashtra.

Salient Features of 62.7 / 82.5 KVA Genset: • Small in size • Light weight • Quieter • Lower fuel consumption • Less in maintenance cost • Low voltage fluctuation • Good in block loading • CPCB approved

Topp Up by Parag Milk Foods Each compartment provides fragrance for 15 days delivering freshness in the bathrooms for full 30 days. The new Airwick Fresh Gel priced at `49 is available in three fragrances – Lavender Dew, Lemon Garden, Velvet Rose.

Parag Milk Foods entered the beverage segment

Commerical Kitchens from arttd’inox

Mango flavoured Vodka by Smirnoff

arttd’inox, premier stainless steel brand offering high value kitchens, has decided to venture into the final finished product - Commercial Kitchens. arttd’inox also offers creative and technical solutions to improvise the existing kitchen set-ups in order to make them more functional, beneficial. arttd’inox has a special design team that helps conceptualising

with the launch of Topp-Up. Topp-Up is the fourth consumer brand from the company specifically targeted towards health-conscious people seeking energy and nutrition. This will be made available to consumers initially in four flavours - Elaichi, Strawberry, Rose and Mango. It has been priced at `20 for 200 ml. kitchen cabinets. These kitchens are hygienic, timeless and durable as they are made from the purest form of stainless steel. They are eco-friendly, corrosion free, non-toxic and hence easy to maintain. The commercial stainless steel modular kitchens are priced at `seven lakh and above.

The base cooking dish is made from cast iron with a flat bottom. It can be used on any heat source, or on it's own as a baking dish in the oven. The 'coolie' style lid is made from earthenware so it still offers the same cooking features as the original. The product is available in different colours as well.

Smirnoff has launched mango flavoured vodka. This new vodka flavor is made using the Smirnoff No 21 blend and the fresh tang of the mango flavour. Smirnoff Mango is available nationally and the price range of the product varies from `380 to `960 across India.

Coffee Machine Cleaning Solutions Wild Water Tapping the functional drinks segment in India, Wild Water is offering the benefits of Vitamins A, B

Cooper ECOPACK Cooper Corporation, has launched its three cylinder, 62.5 KVA and 82.5 KVA generators under the brand name Cooper ECOPACK. The 62.5 KVA and 82.5 KVA Genset range is powered by Cooper three cylinder engines with four valves per cylinder, with centrally placed injector with a peak firing pressure Premier Mondial has introduced a new range of Coffee Machine Cleaning Solutions which includes American and European cleaning products such as detergent tablets, powders, descalers, milk frothers and several types of brushes.

Cast Iron Tangines by Le Creuset Le Creuset has introduced cast iron tangines, the traditional Moroccan cookware. Tangine refers to the dish which is slow-cooked inside the cooking vessel.

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and C along with electrolytes, Guarana extracts and Zinc. Priced at `70 Wild Water has no preservatives, has low sugar and focuses on hydration thus meeting the needs of calorie-conscious consumers.

June 1-15, 2013

CSDO to launch 'The Chocolate Project' EH STAFF - Mumbai

raft and Social Development Organisation (CSDO) will launch 'The Chocolate Project', an initiative to become an expert in chocolate industry. On completion of the course candidates will receive government approved certificates apart from the certificates issued by CSDO itself. CSDO is one of the leading name in chocolate industry. Sunita Bhasin, general secretary, CSDO saw a latent creative talent in every woman which was not yet realised or exercised. Apart from chocolate, CSDO also deals with candles, soap and art and craft as well.

According to Bhasin, the

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Sunita Bhasin chocolate market has a huge potential and there are various unexplored zones in chocolate making in India.

Concepts like marshmallows, cupcakes, muffins and designer chocolates are very popular abroad but are yet to get recognition in the Indian market.

CSDO with its 22 years of experience strives to achieve success and popularity amongst its clients.

The course outline ranges from hobby to semi professional to professional to advanced, which includes molded, dipped, liquor, fondant, professional fudges and truffles, hot chocolate, brownies, marshmallows. The professional and advanced courses teach about the marketing skills and cost calculation required to turn an individual into a successful entrepreneur.

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Netscribes launches report Snacks Market in India 2013 EH STAFF - Mumbai

lobal market intelligence firm, Netscribes launched its report on the 'Snacks Market in India' that elaborates the competitive market scenario of the Indian snacks market and its growth prospects. The report states that the Indian snacks market is witnessing rising demand due to a variety of factors that are in turn is making the market lucrative for manufacturers.

Snack is one of the major segments of the packaged food division, which comes under the broad category of consumer foods. Though the snacks market in India is dominated by the unorganised sector, the organised sector has shown remarkable growth in terms of market share in the last few years.

The report provides a

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snapshot of the Indian snack industry which has witnessed several changes since 1995. The snacks market is classified into two broad segments - western and traditional snack segments.

Factors driving the growth of the snacks market in India include higher disposable income leading to greater spending power by consumers, rapid urbanisation leading to busy lifestyle and subsequent inclination of consumers toward packaged food products and aggressive marketing campaigns by all the players to break the product clutter and attract consumers towards their brand.

In addition to these, other factors include growing working women population, fast expanding retail network and the convenience factor associated with snack consumption.

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‘Parallel agendas resonate with a new generation of schizophrenic guests’ India's burgeoning food services sector is offering much more than just culinary experience. The ambience that these new hot spots are creating are often the reason why customers are drawn back. Mumbai based design studio The Busride run by partners Ayaz and Zameer Basrai are at the forefront of these successes. Ayaz Basrai explains the thought process prior to getting into designing a space. By Sayoni Bhaduri While designing a space, what are the key elements that you keep in mind?

Its really interesting how the guiding ideas for most spaces appear from asking a million questions in the beginning of each project. We try to get into the minds of all the stakeholders on projects, clients, guests, investors, users, staff and everyone who's going to be interacting with our space. We also try to gain a large insight into intangibles. We're finding more and more that these define projects, the 'mind space' is sometimes more important that the physical space. The vibe is generated from something other than just the walls, furniture, textures and colours, and it's that differential that we're constantly trying to articulate, and the one that takes up most of our thinking time. We're also mindful of parallel agendas, we're always asking ques-

difference between spaces that look good, and places that endure. It's also increasingly the difference between successful spaces and unsuccessful ones, and these 'parallel agendas' seem to resonate with a whole new generation of schizophrenic guests.

Ayaz Basrai tions like 'Whats good for the city? What makes us interested? What inspires us?' and then try to reflect these into fitouts. These have little or no commercial value, but add tremendously to the atmosphere of spaces. It's the biggest

Most of The Busride's work in the hospitality space has been for restaurants. Have you looked at the hotel space as well?

We enjoy the hospitality space tremendously as a studio, and are always excited about creating places and venues that we are ourselves users of. It's an exciting and challenging environment to work in, since we're constantly collaborating with talented chefs, DJs, artists, visual jockeys, and other motivated individuals, all looking to change the scene in some way or the other. There's a beautiful

emerging landscape of places opening up, and taking India to a global-cool stage, and we're excited to engage with that terrain in as many ways as possible. I also strongly feel that places of congregation are now being redefined. My parents went to different spaces to meet like-minded people.

When you consider new restaurants and bars as new places for congregation, it's a fun job to imbue places with a little city pride, or some good news, or just a new way of looking at the world, and that hopefully makes people smile when they walk in.

We have worked on a hotel project as well, we worked on the concept design for Le Sutra, a boutique hotel in Bandra. We would love to engage with the hotel format, it offers so many more guest touch points.

What are the challenges in designing a restaurant/hotel?

The direct answer would be some amount of technicali-

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ty. Both restaurants and hotels have complex services requirements that need to be met, and engage with the entire range of MEP requirements, so it involves understanding the nuances of various different agencies and fields, and to make sense of some amount of complexity.

But that's really not the challenge, the technical parts of it are always easy, there are enough solutions at hand and no problem is insurmountable. There are many other challenges in the field, and they are normally the more subtle ones. Understanding the mix of guests coming in, allowing the design and decor to complement the menu and pricing, working on innovative service-based design ideas, all these are much more valid inquiries. We'd like to look at ways and formats to progress the scene, which means pushing a more progressive way of looking at culture, in terms of ambience, food, music and all other June 1-15, 2013

D|E|S|I|G|N ence. The idea was to elevate the cafe experience to a much more decorative, formal seated idea, where a lot more respect is given to the product.

Their pizzas are a fantastic quality product, and boast of a completely backward integrated system. Through a more formal design, we intended to allow guests to take the product more seriously. Serving up a fantastic product in an informal cafe atmosphere would somehow degrade the perception of the product. We

worked on a fun Harbour inspired-Steampunk-Leatherand-Brass Rudyard-Kiplingmeets-Old-Bombay-Deco vibe, that encapsulated their brand guidelines into a totally local decor expression. If there's an interesting interpretation to global standards, there really is no conflict at all.

While great designs are drawn on paper, execution often is a challenge. How important is it to work with project management team?

That is really the crux of our job. Executing a vision of a space is really the entirety of our profession, and we end up honing this skill throughout our professional lives. I've felt that it comes down to collecting the right team around you to execute projects. I also feel there is no one-size-fits-all solution. We work with a very different team for smaller projects, residential spaces, etc, who understand finish and are able to execute smaller projects in a lot of detail. At

Smokehouse Room, we attempted an extremely sinuous, organic space, that had no standard radius, and each corner was treated differently, with a variety of materials.

This was executed more by the design team than the contracting team, working very closely with the labour, to create the right form transitions. I guess every project conceals within itself the right approach, and that defines the outcome more than anything.

supporting avenues. We're increasingly finding that what makes people fall in love with a space, and keep coming back, is not really dependent on spend, or even strictly speaking interior design. It's design in the largest sense possible, the design of rituals, the design of experiences and the design of every single guest interaction. There's equal value in designing the way the valet takes your car, and how he makes you feel, as the furniture and lighting elements. We're also trying to build this way of looking at things into all our projects, and that to me, is the big challenge.

International chains have a standard design specification that needs to be adhered to. As a designer how do you incorporate a local feel in a global standard? And how important is it to do this?

Its critical to understand both the local and the global mandates. There are inherent advantages to both mindsets, and its easy to spot the salient features of each, to make them work for you in your fitout The example of Pizza Express comes to mind, we recently designed their flagship store in Colaba, in the Art Deco Dhanraj Mahal. Pizza Express has a strong monochrome design language, and very detailed guidelines for service areas, Pizzaiola counters, and most of their operational trajectories. Very early on we realised that their layouts and circulation patterns are masterfully crafted through years of experience, and goes a long way to ensure that guests receive their food on time, in the best way possible. It became meaningless to re-invent those parts.

However, we have a different understanding of guest experiJune 1-15, 2013

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SPECIAL FEATURE IN FOCUS

A season for Ayurveda Even while Kerala Tourism is gearing to push the monsoon season as the season for Ayurveda, thousands of wellness seeking tourists continue to make the journey to God's Own Country for the healing touch of a 5,000 year old tradition. By Steena Joy ith an unbroken 5,000-year old tradition of Ayurveda, Kerala is home to one of the sciences of healing. Regional folk medical practices utilising Kerala's rich medicinal flora and Ashtavaidyas, traditional physicians who are experts in the eight branches of Ayurveda, as laid out in Ashtangahridayam, have contributed much to Kerala's rise as the centre of Ayurveda. Of the original 18 Ashtavaidya families, a few still practice in the state.

Kerala's tropical forests are home to over 900 different Ayurvedic herbs and medicinal plants and Agasthyakoodam, a peak in the southern part, nurtures some of the rarest varieties most of them endemic to the region. And as most of these potent herbs are available throughout the year, continuity in treatments is ensured to make them effective.

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Quality benchmarks The popularity of Ayurveda has today led Kerala Tourism to take stringent measures in sustaining the quality of the products and services offered. A certification system has been introduced by the state to classify centres into Green Leaf and Olive Leaf categories based on the quality and standard of services and products. The Ayurveda centres in Kerala are graded based on the quality of technical personnel, medicine, health programmes and equipment. Only those centres which are classified/approved are promoted by Kerala Tourism.

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Suman Billa, secretary, Kerala Tourism affirms, “You cannot undermine the importance of classification especially when it involves something like Ayurveda. When a tourist travels here, he needs to be assured that what he pays for is what he gets.

Ayurveda is unfortunately not like a hotel room which can be viewed online. It involves medication so we have to ensure not only the infrastructure but also that the manpower is well trained, that the medicines used in the treatment are of appropriate quality so that the health of the patient is not compromised.

So the two tier classification was introduced – Green Leaf pertains to five-star standard while Olive Leaf is three-star.

So whichever standard a tourist chooses, he is assured that he is in safe hands.

Ayurveda is a traditional science so people can be easily fooled. When we go for the inspection, we check not only the premises, but also the staff working there and how trained they are and their edu-

Suman Billa

Rani George

cational qualifications.”

Commenting on the manpower requirements of the sector, he says, “There are two types of manpower needed in the Ayurveda sector: one is the doctors who are critical to the treatment. Thankfully we have good medical colleges and medical institutions in Kerala so the doctor pool is

sufficient. Then we also have the reputed institutions of excellence like Kottakal Arya Vaidyashala, Vaidyaratan and Nagarjuna who have been practicing unbroken Ayurveda for many centuries. The second level are the masseurs and the therapists for whom there are courses conducted by the Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies (KITTS). There are also courses done by Ayurveda practitioners like Pankaja Kasturi College of Ayurveda in the private sector. So all this ensures a steady stream of well trained manpower for the sector. The responsibility to ensure that the therapists work well lies with the doctor.”

Rani George director, Kerala Tourism says, “The classification system is a good thing as it helps maintain standards of Ayurveda. Many Ayurveda centres are applying for the classification because it is an acceptance of their stan-

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dards of quality.”

She adds, “We have being selling Kerala as God's Own Country owing to its natural beauty. But we also realised that Ayurveda is another niche product and that we need to brand Kerala as the home of Ayurveda. So we rolled out a campaign for this in 2011. We launched the campaign in Germany because a lot of tourists come from there for Ayurveda treatments. We followed this with roadshows and workshops in Germany, released ads in their print media and also participated in international wellness fairs.

Then we found that other countries were also showing interest in our Ayurveda like Austria, Sweden, Switzerland.

So we used the print media in these countries to create awareness about this niche product. We also released a domestic campaign in India at airports, roadshows, etc.”

Monsoon is dream season George points out that lots of visitors come from these countries to Kerala for Ayurveda. “And this is despite the recession. There are inflows even from the Middle East and Russia. Keeping this in mind, we created a campaign for the Middle East last year for the monsoon season as tourists from there come during this season to escape the heat in their countries.

This year too we will be creating a campaign for the Middle East for the monsoon season.

We plan to sell the off season as the dream season for Ayurveda. Earlier we were focusing on the price factor but now we plan to focus on the experience factor; that is June 1-15, 2013

S|P|A | S|P|E|C|I|A|L making it more experiential.

We will focus on June and July as the season for Ayurveda. Especially as the monsoon season is most suitable for Ayurveda.”

Ancient texts prescribe the monsoon season (JuneAugust) as the ideal time for Ayurveda. It is during this season that the atmosphere remains cool and dust-free letting the pores of the body open to a maximum, making the skin most receptive to therapy.

Somatheeram Ayurveda Resort is a Green Leaf certified centre that recently won the state tourism award for Best Ayurveda Centre. Located at Chowara Beach on a hillock nine km south of the famous Kovalam Beach, in Kerala, the resort is spread over 15 acres of lush greenery. The resort accommodation is built in the traditional style of southern India, and most of the bungalows called Kerala Houses and Cottages have a lovely view of the sea.

According to a Somatheeram official, “We do get domestic guests but majority of our guests are Europeans who come for the Ayurveda treatments that we specialise in.” She adds, “South India and especially Kerala offers the ideal climatic conditions required for the efficacy of Ayurveda. A moderate temperature, ample rainfall ensured by two monsoons, humid air and abundant natural wealth. All this makes Kerala the perfect natural setting for Ayurveda's healing touch for the rejuvenation of body, mind and soul.”

Commenting on whether the resort sees a rise in numbers during the monsoon season, she says, “We get guests round the year but yes, in the last two years we have seen an increase in guests during the monsoons as there is increasing awareness about the monsoon season being the ideal climate for Ayurveda.”

Somatheeram has a diet plan that is integral to each course of Ayurvedic treatment. During the initial examination, the Somatheeram doctors compile a personal Ayurvedic diet plan for each guest – in accordance with his/her personal Dosha or constitution. Roughly 200 different Ayurvedic dishes are available and are served in the resort's restaurant in traditional mud pots that retain the flavours. The Ayurveda resort also has its own facility to manufacture the medications required for treatment.

The manufacturing plant at Somatheeram has been June 1-15, 2013

awarded the Good Manufacturing Product Certificate (GMP) by the Indian Government in appreciation of its high quality products.

Kalaripayattu's link with Ayurveda Many seasonal rituals and religious ceremonies in Kerala also echo the tenets of Ayurveda. Ayurvedic massages have long been customary for Kalaripayattu (the traditional martial training and

physical culture unique to Kerala) artistes to increase flexibility of the body. There are around 65 active Kalaris under the aegis of the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association affiliated to the Kerala Sports Council. In fact the healing aspect of Kalaripayattu was the first known sports medical system in the days when there were no hospitals. Foot massages and ortho treatments were used to heal sports injuries.

According to CVN Kalari

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Sangham set up in 1956 in Thiruvanathapuram, the training to become a master or Gurukkal involves many years of teaching of young and senior students in the Kalari and the learning of various advanced Kalarippayat techniques and the whole body massage system known as Uzhichil. The specialised branch of treatments done by the Kalari Gurukkals is known as Kalarichikilsa or Marmachikilsa having its foundation in Ayurveda, with

special emphasis on treatment of orthopedic injuries and ailments. CVN Kalari also runs a traditional ‘Kalarichikitsa’ clinic specialising in Ayurvedic orthopedic treatments. The Sangham runs a traditional Kalari training centre and also organises perfomances and workshops in many countries and has represented India in many prestigious international festivals. It also receives many students from overseas for training every year.

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Management COVER STORY

Design strategy Hotel designs are becoming more and more crucial in establishing the right image for a hotel. But between what is drawn on paper and the real structure, the story is full of ups and downs. By Sayoni Bhaduri

Sofitel BKC, Mumbai

ome away from home, often, has been a phrase used to describe a hotel.

But does a guest want a reincarnation of his home environs is matter of debate.

Irrespective of the answer, it is clear that both the soft furnishings and the hard shell matter to what image a hotel wants to portray. This becomes even more important as it becomes difficult to distinguish between the services and standards of one hotel from another. It is the experience which has become paramount and the ambience and atmosphere of a hotel goes a long way to do just that. Markland Blaiklock, senior VP, Sofitel Asia Pacific says, “One of the attributes that differentiate one hotel from another is the actual 'experience' a consumer has.

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One of the key contributing factors to this 'experience', is the design and interiors of the hotel.

The hotel ambience and atmosphere have also proven to be a significant aspect in creating a positive stay and a memorable experience.” The aim is to be able to enter the mind space of customers in order to gain retention. A continuous visual passive interaction with the surroundings from the beginning to the end of the stay is what interiors, graphic design, etc, help in establishing.

For most international brands who have a growing footprint, a clearly defined design and construction standards help establish minimum requirements for the designing of a hotel. The standardisation reaches a level where furniture, toilets www.expresshospitality.com

are manufactured factory style and therefore half the interiors are achieved by simple assembly.

But repetition in room design is a big bane. Ritu Bhatia Kler, MD, Total Integrated Design India (TID) states, “Interior of one hotel can be more thematic whereas the other can be more fun and colourful within the same star category.

While some brands are looking at cookie cutter rooms, it is important that they innovate every three to five years as there are always new materials and new ways to do things. Guests loyal to the brand would also appreciate that the designs and functional aspects are up to date and the brand is always improving and keeping with the times.” The guest should get a flavour of the city and culture of the city he/she is in. This can be done

in simple ways in the threeand four- star categories through upholstery, artwork, artefacts and in five-star or upper upscale categories through local elements which can be used in innovative use of motifs, designs, etc, she further explains. TID has worked with major hotel chains recent ones being ibis Navi Mumbai and Holiday Inn Express in Ahmedabad.

Ayaz Barsai of The Busride who has worked on a variety of restaurant projects opines, “ I feel global design language is exhausted of references, most hotels achieve a generic gloss, but hardly ever a nuanced understanding of local culture. You can always spot the NRI perspective, an almost 'tourist' like tunneled vision of the country, which we're really trying to change.”

The focus on local culture is on the rise even within the June 1-15, 2013

standardised chain hotels. As Mitali Bajaj, founder-CEO, Dr Art+Design puts it, “As a fusion between the brands, design standard and local flavour scores higher on the familiarity equation. For people who are coming from out of the country they would rather see a hotel with some relevance of it being in India. For a local population, they might be equally happy with a eastern concept because it has the sameness to it.” Dr Art+Design was responsible for the creation of the boutique hotel in Mumbai – Le Sutra. To give hotels an edge in a competitive market, designers are now incorporating local elements into everything – the look and feel to the restaurants and spas, helping to showcase a location’s unique materials, cultures and traditions, and providing visitors with a memorable experience.

A resort for instance would have more horizontal spaces, larger lobbies, mood lighting, sometimes open air spaces (non-airconditioned) depending on the location.

There may be more use of wood in the interiors. Resorts are more relaxed in atmosphere where the nature blends with the interiors in terms of design and materials, elements and lighting. A resort room preferably has space for a comfortable armchair to give the guest more relaxing spaces. A bath-tub is preferable since a guest has time to use it as oppose to the city/business traveller. A city hotel in comparison is usually vertical thanks to expensive real estate, with well lit areas, especially corridors. Lobbies are limited or there are lobby lounges which are often also revenue generating areas. City hotel is more functional with importance is given to provide a guest with all the comforts that he would expect in his home or office, maybe more. The rooms in a city hotel would be more business focused keeping in mind the practical aspects of a business traveller and the bathrooms would mostly have shower cubicles.

However, provision for a desk and functional business requirements such as plug points for charging or data June 1-15, 2013

points even in a resort hotel as technology is no longer about business only and everyone travels with their gizmos even on a holiday.

Ground realities At Sofitel, Blaiklock assures that properties have an amalgamation of French

design, with motives from the local culture. They have designers of international repute working on the properties. “One of the many reasons why people choose us is because Sofitel Luxury Hotels blends its French culture, design and gastronomy with local

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tradition in a signature art nouveau style, offering multifaceted indulgences through cuisine, entertainment and relaxation,” he says. All Sofitel international designers working on a Sofitel project work closely with the local design team

and overlook all details till the completion of the project.

Sofitel boasts of enlisting top names is design and architecture such as Didier Gomez and Jean Nouvel to create façades throughout the world. “They work together as a team to ensure a successful representation of

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Markland Blaiklock

Ritu Bhatia Kler

Mitali Bajaj

Bruno Loosli

the brands French heritage and local touch,” he continues discussing the challenge from paper to reality of designs. For companies like TID – headquartered in Singapore – challenges are not so much, “We speak the same design language and have the same

work style and professionalism. In fact we have sensitised our drawing details and other technical aspects for the contractor in India to be able to execute.

We know what works and what does not work in construction in India,” Bhatia Kler says with confidence.

Ground handling and project management is imperative and having the right team is a make or break situation from a design point of view. Bruno Loosli, CEO, Mars Enterprises which owns and operates Waterstones Hotel in Mumbai says, “Design and execution are

on time and within budget.

Strong project planning reduces the risks and anticipates the upcoming challenges and unexpected issues and ultimately completes the project. At the same time an experienced and good design firm would always count on challenges

Taj Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad The Mirror of the Sky or Falaknuma Palace was the royal residence of Nizam Mehboob Ali Khan. After 10 years of extensive and sensitive restoration, The Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces has infused a new life into royal abode, which was the sole preserve of visiting royalty like King Edward VIII and the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II. The new avatar of the Palace as a hotel opened its doors to discerning travellers in 2011.

Raymond Bickson, MD and CEO, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces said, “We are proud to have added another historic palace to our portfolio - one of the last of the Grand Palaces. It has been lovingly restored and enhanced, and so effortlessly fuses the old with the new and tradition with modernity to create a state of art luxury hotel.”

The Palace offers a choice of 60 unique and exquisite rooms and suites including a Grand Presidential Suite, two restaurants – Celeste serving Italian and Mediterranean cuisine and Adaa offering Indian cuisine fine dining, an outdoor pool and the signature Jiva Spa spread across 32 acres of manicured gardens. The suites were once the private chambers of the Nizam, royal family and state guests, are now beautifully detailed and complete with every modern comfort, from stateof-the-art amenities to a personal butler. The blend of Italian and Tudor design is exquisite, yet distinct, offering a glimpse of imperial lifestyle and fascinating history. Made entirely of Italian marble, the palace is also home to priceless art and artefacts. The ornate inlaid furniture from Kashmir, rich handcrafted tapestries from France, Venetian chandeliers and intricate frescos, all give the palace its distinct Baroque style.

Princess Esra Jah guided and gave her inputs to the project completed the picture with her presence.

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ibis, Navi Mumbai 'two sides of a coin'. It is very important for the designers to work hand in hand with the project management team to ensure smooth and efficient execution of project.” A project management team helps meet the complex challenges of delivering development, construction, fit out and refurbishment projects. They also add value to projects as viability and commercial pressures grow in step with changes in the economic climate.

A disciplined project management process is important to any project and project managers are expected to deliver results,

to come up and prepare solutions as part of the plan that they would be submitting.

To avoid situation where people on site take their own decision compromising designs it is important to call the designer in from time to time. Most big hotel chains have partnerships with leading project management companies that are recommended to hotel investors during the project development period to ensure an efficient, timely and cost effective development process.

Efficient designs Architectural efficiency is June 1-15, 2013

Waterstones Hotel, Mumbai

one of the key foundations to a successful investment.

Keeping the right balance between design, functionality and costs are critical in today’s competitive environment. Environmental awareness has become one of the top priorities for every hotel. “It is important to be conscious of the global climate changes and to take part in responsible contribution to society. To a certain extent, it is also important to provide opportunities to hotel guests to participate in this contribution,” says Blaiklock.

Loosli adds, “A resource efficient building may require more investment initially but will keep operational costs low. Certain designs may look spectacular but cause issues in the day to day operation. All these aspects are relevant and important in building/hotel design.”

Efficiency often requires a different temperament and an out-of-the-box approach.

And for this approach to succeed an open mind of all concerned stakeholders is crucial. Hotel designs are done by specialised hotel June 1-15, 2013

architects, builders, interior designers are a proof of this.

“The fear of not doing something different because its not tried and tested is loosing ground. Today a customer is willing to pay for a different experience. So developers will have to tow this line in order to come out winning,” says Bajaj. With today’s competition, it is vital to plan for best in class and this requires the knowledge and openness to innovation and current trends. In recent years, the hotel industry has brought in significant changes to adapt to the development and use of new technologies. Innovations in hotel designing and execution have become necessary to keep up with the changing trends in the market and all hoteliers and developers acknowledge this fact. To this Bhatia Kler provides a juxtaposition, “In the last two to three years we have seen cost as the main driving factor and unfortunately there is less tolerance and patience for innovation. When you are innovative sometimes it takes time for R&D and mock ups

to be made. The process is important. As designers, we enjoy the process of innovation. The opportunity today is less, unless one is involved with a unique project like renovating a heritage fort.”

International hotel chains have tie-ups and associations with design and architecture firms which are internationally acclaimed, and it is an extension of that the hotels in India use there expertise. They are also better equipped to deal with large projects that require a lot of logistic support, drawing load, and services planning. But interestingly many of Indian hotel chains also opt for international architects. The answer to that seems to lie in the observation itself. “Most Indian design firms do not have to their credit as many experiences as the international firms have.

Therefore, their experience is limited to a few hotels.

International firms being much larger in size and working on a multi country exposure, carry with them a variety of experiences based on different cultures and different climates. However, several Indian firms have tied up with several international firms for execution. In a few years this will bring them up to par. Owners want to bet themselves on a tried and tested company,” says Bajaj.

But as long as design firm should be able to deliver their designs with the right process of drawings, bill of quantities and follow ups in a timely fashion; their designs being creative, innovative and functional that is all that matters. Basrai adds, “Differences in competency are being taken up a crazy unprecedented speed. What it's taken the west 20 years to achieve we will achieve in two years.

And its that spirit that will create a vast scope of work for us. We're in the middle of a massive Indian renaissance, and witnesses to a huge flowering of our local home-grown scene, and it's just a matter of time before we export our cultural zeitgeist i can see a trend in the very near future where Indian designers would be building venues abroad a lot more than foreign designers building in India!” www.expresshospitality.com

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Cousu main service Accor's Sofitel boasts of providing guests with a sensory pleasure. In India their only project stands tall in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Robert Gaymer-Jones, global CEO, Sofitel Luxury Hotels says it is the flagship of the brand in India and hopes to get more projects on the roll soon. By Sayoni Bhaduri ofitel BKC Mumbai opened its doors to patrons a year back.

And two more are in the offing. For Robert Gaymer-Jones, global CEO, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Sofitel BKC is a true representation of what the Sofitel brand is globally. “It is a great platform for us to showcase the brand in India. We have also invested in the project. It is the best of local and French design brought together,” he says. The focus is on intimacy which in turn creates loyalty.

Accor, Sofitel's parent company, invested 40 per cent of the total cost of the Sofitel BKC Mumbai, not just to show their seriousness for the Indian market but also as it is a showcase hotel of the brand in India. They tied up Shree Naman Group to develop the project which was originally planned to be operational in 2009 The other two Sofitel hotels are also to open up in the financial capital of India in the under-development suburb of Mulund. An association with Nirmal Lifestyle will see India's first Sofitel SO and second Sofitel hotel.

As the luxury brand under Accor’s umbrella, Sofitel today boasts of 120 hotels in 40 countries and by 2015 the brand aims to have

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Robert Gaymer Jones

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150 hotels globally. These not just as Sofitel, but also inclusive of two branch-out sub brands – Sofitel SO and Sofitel Legend. Sofitel Legend hotels are best described as those which have had historical heritage backing them. The first Sofitel Legend was the Metropole Hanoi rechristened as Sofitel Legend Metropole in 2009.

Sofitel SO is in contrast a much contemporary sister to the Legend, introduced in 2011. First SO hotel was the Sofitel SO Mauritius Bel Ombre with signature designs from Kenzo Takada.

In fact the association with a well renowned creative

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brand names is Sofitel hotels USP. Apart from Takada, Christian Lacroix is associated with Sofitel SO Bangkok and Karl Lagerfeld with Sofitel SO Singapore. A similar association is expected for the Mumbai SO hotel. “It is not necessary that it has to be a French fashion brand, it could be anyone from the creative field but as long as it is a well established one. Working with Fashion, design, and art is also definitely a part of growth in India,” assures Gaymer-Jones.

Sofitel relishes to exude everything that is French, the concept of 'art de vivre'

is very close to brand's philosophy. Gaymer-Jones explains that for every hotel they start with a blank canvas but there are three pillars which are foundations – design, food and wine and culture.

“These three elements blend together in to something unique with a vision of elegance,” he says.

If their association with Takada, Lacroix and Lagerfeld is anything to go by, the focus on design is further strengthened when stalwarts in design and architecture give Sofitel a boost. Jean Nouvel, Didier Gomez, Sybille de Margerie are some of the names who have worked with the Sofitel brand. Sofitel Mumbai BKC had Isabelle Miaja giving the hotel a muted femininity.

Gaymer adds that as a brand, Sofitel is also recognised as a feminine brand and it was not something that we had worked on achieving. A French experience can never be complete without gastronomy – also the second pillar of the Sofitel brand.

From the Michelin star restaurant Le Lumiere at Hotel Paris Le Scribe managed by Sofitel to the pure vegetarian restaurant Tuskers at Sofitel BKC, the focus to cater to the local culinary palate is evident.

The third pillar of culture which is reflected in the June 1-15, 2013

variety of exhibitions and events that take place across the globe.

All handcrafted With an asset light growth model investors in India are excited about this fairly avant garde product believes Gaymer-Jones.

He says, “There is a need to create a difference from the big players in the market. People feel that the cookie cutter model for hotels no longer work.” The Sofitel brand has always focused on the senses; a historical French company working with local hotels.

“We want to blend India and local with the French,” he adds. Not worried about the tough competition that India offers in luxury segment Gaymer-Jones says that they are moving away from the functional and into the emotional.

“We create something called

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approachable luxury and the guest is a part of it,” he says.

The thought is reflected in the Sofitel employees, “We call our staff, our ambassadors and we take a lot of effort into training them,” he says. The service is hand crafted – cousu main, as the French call it – which means intimate and meaningful service. He relates a tale of a seven year old girl who lost her teddy bear and the staff replaced it and played a game with the girl. It was the ingenuity of the staff to create that emotional connect with the young guest. In an employee survey conducted 93 per cent of the employees said that they were very satisfied working with the hotel brand.

“It has been imperative for us to take care of our people, creating a vision of the future,” says Gaymer-Jones.

The brand's first hotel, Sofitel BKC, has resonated well according to Gaymer-

Jones, not just with international guests but also locally. “It has a great reputation for its F&B creating a lot of excitement.

This has also resulted in an increased footfall to the hotel, not just corporate but also leisure. Indians are our number one customers at the hotel,” he says. Globally fiveseven per cent of the business is contributed by Indians. “I dream of having the Sofitel brand present in Bengaluru, Delhi, Goa and Rajasthan,” he adds. Though the Sofitel brand maybe premature for the micromarket of Mulund GaymerJones is sure that he would rather be the first than the last. Whats more, he intends to take full advantage of Sofitel's presence in India and Mumbai as he is sure that the awareness of the city globally cannot be underestimated.

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Will the revised RBI guidelines allow struggling hotels to survive?

With high capital costs and cost of funds hotels are struggling to survive and grow despite the growing demand for hotel rooms across the country. Many standalone and chain hotels have now opted for structured corporate debt restructuring. By R S Mani

uild a hotel for your pension cheque and not for your pay cheque. This is what wise and seasoned hoteliers will tell you if you want to build a hotel. This is because hotels are expensive, take long time to be built and even longer to breakeven and make money for the owners.

With high capital costs and a still higher cost of funds in terms of interest, hotels projects are struggling to survive and grow despite the growing demand for hotel rooms across the country.

The global meltdown that started around 2008 added to the woe of the industry.

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R S Mani

Many standalone hotels and hotel chains have opted for structured corporate debt restructuring (CDR) initiative put in place by bankers.

Under CDR, banks extend repayment period to companies besides offering moratorium and reduced lending rates among other things.

On January 31, RBI issued revised draft ‘prudential’ guidelines for restructuring of advances by banks and financial institutions. The proposals for restructuring of loans have to be financially viable and repayment certain as per the restructured package.

A comparison COUNTRY

LOAN TERM (YEARS)

INTEREST RATE (%)

India

7-10

12-14

US

20-30

5.5-7

UK

20-25

5.25-6.5

Russia

20

8

Singapore

25-30

5.5-7

China

10

6-7

Argentina

10

9-10

Brazil

7-10

14

Source: HVS Global Hospitality Services

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Banks will determine the viability based on acceptable benchmarks determined by them which may be applied on a case-to-case basis, depending on the merits of each case.

No doubt these revised guidelines come against the backdrop of alarming increase in the total number of cases referred and approved by CDR Cell. By December 2012, banks had restructured 362 cases amounting to `211,978 crore.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year itself, banks had recast `61,463 crore of bad loans. With sluggish economic growth, more units may be knocking at the doors of CDR Cell.

Hotel industry is one of the most affected in this scenario of sluggish economy, ever increasing project cost and interests.

Hotel industry is also turning towards CDR to stabilise operations, break even and meet the debt obligations.

From two accounts and `147 crore approved in the fiscal 2009, the number of hotel accounts restructured has grown to seven accounts and `3919 crore by December June 1-15, 2013

2012. This forms almost two per cent of the total loans recast for all industries put together.

Concerned with the increasing number of industries taking to CDR route, RBI had constituted a working group headed by B Mahapatra to review the existing prudential norms on restructuring of advances.

The January Circular on draft norms is based on the recommendations of the working group which was issued by RBI in January.

These recommendations are aimed at streamlining and tightening the entire restructuring process further.

To be accepted, the unit has to be viable within a relatively shorter time and greater contribution has to be made by promoters by way of ‘promoter sacrifice’ and additional funding so as to ensure that the promoter retains 'skin in the game.'

Hotels require between 5060 approvals to build and commence operations. This can delay the project. Then there is the complexity of engineering involved – plumbing, electrical, mechanical, IT, acoustics, etc.

Hotels import many types of equipment for kitchen, airconditioning, security, lighting, furniture and fixture, etc from various countries. All these can, and in many instances do, result in project and cost overruns. With banks charging interest of 13-16 per cent per annum now, the interest during construction (IDC) forms significant part of the project cost.

It costs anywhere between `100-120 lakh per room for an June 1-15, 2013

upscale hotel. A 200 room hotel will cost around `200 crore. Even if the cost of borrowed funds is 10 per cent, hotels will find it extremely difficult to meet the interest and repayment obligations leave alone giving any return to the owners. Hotels require reduced interest rates with longer repayment period to survive and grow.

The hotel industry lobby has been making fervent appeals to accord hotel projects infrastructure status considering the huge capital outlay required for building hotels and on the one hand and the industry’s enormous potential for employment and income generation on the other hand. As a corollary, the industry has been pleading for extending the maximum tenure for repayment of the loans from the present 10 years to a longer tenure at a reduced rate of interest to align the fund costs with the hotel earning potential.

In most other country financial institutions give a much longer period for repayment of the loans or extend loans at a lesser interest rate than what is prevailing in India.

India perhaps is the only country where hoteliers have to survive and grow borrowing at high cost and repaying under rigorous repayment schedules.

The existing guidelines stipulate the time period for attaining viability as 10 years for infrastructure industries and seven years for noninfrastructure borrowed accounts. The RBI revised these guidelines which states that “in order to qualify for

special asset classification benefit banks should ensure that the unit taken up for restructuring achieves viability in eight years if engaged in infrastructure activities and in five years in other cases.”

The guidelines now is more focused on regulating assets provisioning and corporate restructuring. So, only the most deserving cases may be taken up for restructuring. The industry needs greater regulatory forbearance. By doing away with regulatory forbearance and other measures, the process may become burdensome leading to hotel companies and financial institutions abandoning the restructuring efforts. This will hurt the economy and adversely affect the bank balance sheets and hotel industry.

Hotel owners have to study the revised guidelines. Not many hotels, particularly hotels that have availed institutional finance at high costs, will be able to fulfill this shortened timeline-viability-criterion.

And hotels may have greater difficulty in getting their proposal approved for restructuring by the CDR So coming back to the old hotelier saying of building hotel for getting pension cheque rather than pay cheque; the policy changes contemplated will make it increasingly difficult for hoteliers to get even their pension cheques.

The writer is CEO at MSR Hotel (Bangalore), Bengaluru – the holding company for Moevenpick Hotel and Spa Bangalore www.expresshospitality.com

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Unconventionally luxurious Launched seven years ago, the LuLu International Convention Centre in Thrissur has changed the convention landscape of Kerala by offering spacious functionality in an accessible location. Jose Sebastian, GM, LuLu ICC encapsulates the convention centre's exclusivity and explains why he thinks Kerala is under-rated as a MICE destination. By Steena Joy ocated in the heart of Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, the LuLu International Convention Centre (ICC) is part of the prestigious EMKE group of the Middle East, famous for its chain of hypermarkets.

With a built–up area of 160,000 sq ft, an exclusive helipad and car parking for 1800 cars, the sheer spaciousness and opulence of LuLu ICC is matched by its functionality: total wi-fi connectivity, the LuLu Garden Hotel with 35 spacious rooms and suites, a multi-cuisine restaurant, health club and business centre. Launched in 2006, LuLu ICC was awarded the Best Convention Centre of India by the Government of India in 2009-2010. It can take up to 5,000 people at a go across seven different venues which are centrally airconditioned.

Jose Sebastian, GM, LuLu ICC explains, “The Plenary Hall LuLu Grand can accommodate up to 2,000 people (theatre style). The Banquet Halls - Ruby and Lotus - can accommodate 1,000 and 700 pax respectively.

The Mini Conference halls (Flexi) Safina i, ii, and iii can have 500 delegates at a time. All the halls are pillarless. The open air courtyard, LuLu Greens can be utilised for crowds up to 1,500. The open-air exhibition area of

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Jose Sebastian

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two lakh sq ft is a speciality of this convention centre.”

The convention centre has been a busy hub of business activity in the past few months. The Kerala Gem and Jewellery Exhibition, organised by The Art of Jewellery and Kerala Gem and Jewellery Manufacturers’ Association was one of the biggest shows of its kind held at LuLu ICC Thrissur, and this was their second running year. The Centre for Materials for Electronic Technology, CMET also recently held their convention on new advances in nano-technology here which was attended by

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June 1-15, 2013

scientists from India and abroad. The World Waterfowl Conference was another international convention and the first of its kind to be held in Thrissur. The conference was attended by scientists and scientific advisors from around the world. Doctors’ conventions and seminars are a regular affair, and the most recent ones include KASICON (Surgeon’s Meet) and the Indian Dental Association (IDA) meet.

The 5th Women’s National Conference on Women in Police featuring the top women IPS Officers from different parts of the country – a five day conference was also held here and so was the Miss South India contest, NATCON and the JCI national conference.

MICE means a million opportunities Despite this surge of MICE traffic, Sebastian believes, “Kerala as a MICE destination is underrated, overlooked, neglected and sadly lacks effective support from the tourism department, as the focus at

June 1-15, 2013

all times is on the development of tourism through leisure tourists alone. The potential of MICE tourism is immense and the possibilities a million. The perfect blend of nature, technology, hospitality and infrastructure are the key ingredients that Kerala offers.

Conducive weather, a willing government and a versatile landscape anywhere you turn are what makes this God’s Own Country, and what is also hyped as a ‘working vacation’. With all the major players in the hospitality industry within India and outside setting their sights on Kerala, and even newer players joining the fray, the signs indicate exciting times for MICE in the state.”

Choices will be more, and so the quality of services and facilities will naturally increase.

The only thing Kerala lacks as a MICE destination is accommodation options, but this is definitely going to change as hoteliers are making investments in the state. “Better government infrastructure and cheaper

flights will not only increase flow from within the country but also from outside. As a tourist destination, Kerala has already made its mark but an additional branding as a MICE destination will take it to a superlative level,” he adds.

LuLu is planning to set up more convention centres in other districts, and a prime property is coming up at Bolgatty, in Kochi. Sebastian reveals, “The project will have the Hyatt Group setting up their first hotel property in Kerala. The convention venue at Bolgatty is projected to be a 5,000+ seater, easily making it the one of the biggest in Asia and the largest in India. The project is expected to be completed in the next couple of years.

Convention centres at Calicut and Thiruvananthapuram are also under consideration.

Without doubt, Kochi can definitely make do with another international convention centre with better facilities than those on offer now. The LuLu Group’s convention centre managed

by Hyatt Group at Bolgatty will be catering to this particular need.”

The group's property at Nedumbassery is already open under Marriott’s Courtyard by Marriott brand and has 105 rooms. The other property managed by Marriott is the one coming up at Edappally which will be a JW Marriott with 300 rooms, scheduled to be inaugurated by end 2013. “As the focus of these properties will be catering to the business-class and international travellers, convention facilities in these hotels are designed as per international standards,” sums up Sebastian. www.expresshospitality.com

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A culinary journey to traditional shores Karavalli, the iconic restaurant at The Gateway Hotel, Bengaluru has won many accolades in its 22 year existence, the recent being voted 44th of the top 50 restaurants in the eleventh annual listing of The S Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants. Executive chef Naren Thimmaiah reveals the ingredients of the restaurant’s success and explains why going back to tradition is becoming very modern. By Steena Joy n 1996 when Karavalli won the H&FS award for the best Indian restaurant, it was the start of a new wave. Executive chef Naren Thimmaiah reminisces, “It was a great feeling to be recognised by the industry for the first time. This award made us promise to our patrons that we would always live up to their expectations.”

Karavalli which means ‘land by the sea’ in Tulu as well as in Kannada was the answer to the Taj Group’s philosophy of popularising and giving rightful due to the regional cuisines of India which was spearheaded by Camellia Panjabi.

“At Karavalli we showcase the cuisines of south west coast covering Goa, Mangalore and Kerala covering the communities of Goan, Portuguese, Konkanis, Bunts, Havyaka Brahmins, Namboodaris, Moplah Muslims and the hinterland cuisines of Syrian Christians and Coorgs. We just replicate traditional recipes used by our mothers and grandmothers, ensuring an authentic meal experience,” says Thimmaiah.

Almost all the ingredients are sourced from their respective regions: black pepper, cardamom, coffee, cinnamon, kodumpuli and kachampuli from Coorg; kokum, palm jaggery, palm vinegar from Goa; Kundapur coconuts, seasonal vegetables, cashew, papads, murukkus, areca from Mangalore; ada, karimeen, Kuttanad red rice, coconut oil from Kerala and Byadgi chilli from Dharwad region to ensure food is as authentic as it can get.

I

Home is where the hearth is Designed like an old Mangalorean home, Karavalli has three dining areas, complete with the inner part of the house, a courtyard and garden area. The restaurant even uses traditional cooking techniques in the kitchen.

“We had worked in various

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Chef Naren Thimmaiah homes as under studies before launching Karavalli.

The kitchen was designed to use the traditional cooking methods. Most of my colleagues have traditional home cooking background.

We just replicate the dishes the way it is cooked at home in olden days. This means you follow the same cooking methods and techniques. In our kitchen at Karavalli, we use all home-style kitchen equipment from stone grinders, mortar and pestle to urlis, copper steamers to cheena chattis (cast iron www.expresshospitality.com

kadais for Moplah cooking), iron kadais to appam chattis and clay pots (for curries and Ramasseri idlies). We also use a complete wood fired Ole (traditional fireplace or choola) for an important section of the dishes,” reveals Thimmaiah.

Recently the restaurant which can accommodate 86 covers, introduced a new menu, the first time since inception. Commenting on what has changed in the new menu, chef Thimmaiah says, “The Karavalli menu still boasts of at least 60 per cent of the dishes which are still being featured from the first menu. We have stuck to the region that we represent but we looked at the communities that were not represented earlier. That’s how we now have some brilliant dishes that we are showcasing from the Konkani community of Mangalore, Syrian Christian community of Travancore and Havyaka Brahmin community of Vitla.”

There are two distinct menus for lunch and dinner.

During lunch Karavalli promotes the traditional Balele Oota (banana leaf meal), the Tiffin Carrier option which changes daily

and a very short a la carte menu with few dishes. Chef Thimmaiah explains, “Tiffin is an old colonial British term for packed lunch or a light meal. It’s derived from the obsolete English slang tiffing, for taking a little drink or sip.

Today the word mostly refers to a packed lunch, in particular to light lunches prepared for working Indian men by their wives.”

In other words, a traditional set-meal that’s quick and involves no decision making.

“This traditional yet noveau concept is unique to this restaurant and comes to the table served in a brass Tiffin Carrier. At the end of the meal, dessert is served separately to complete the meal. One Tiffin Carrier serves two and typically like the good old days you share your tiffin with your colleague on the office table. As for the dinner menu it is like a story book and we go full hog offering the best of the delicacies from the region, “ he adds.

Epicurean delights Karavalli has introduced four new sections. A West Coast Seafood Grill station where fresh catch of the day June 1-15, 2013

is cooked and grilled to suit your palate. Secondly, a Wood Fired Curries section where all the dishes are cooked on wood fire and in earthen pots on a specially created Ole, a traditional wood fired hearth. Then Classic Combinations is a section of traditional dishes, a meal by itself. For example Kori Roti, Pothi Choru and Moplah Meen Biriyani. Lastly, Seasonal Stars is a section of dishes with the ingredients and vegetables purely available during particular season ensuring that patrons don’t miss out on anything. This section changes every season.

Interestingly, most of the traditional fare is served on banana leaves, the natural green making it a visually appealing backdrop on which to serve epicurean masterpieces. Chef Thimmaiah explains, “This is purely traditional. When we replicate a concept, serving food on banana leaf is naturally part of it. It is clean and hygienic as well. Even in cooking, using banana leaf to wrap, steam the food or shallow fry will only enhance the flavour of the dish.” And also it is totally sustainable because it is biodegradable.Sustainability is an important ingredient of the

June 1-15, 2013

restaurant's culinary experience. “As mentioned earlier, we have been sourcing all our ingredients from the regions since the time the restaurant was commissioned. We use organic

vegetables, spices, pulses and grains to a great extent. This is how it’s done at homes in these regions and that’s how we will continue to operate,” reiterates the chef.

Speaking on the interactive experiences at the restaurant, the chef says, “Yes, we do have three interactive experiences for our guests.

Karavalli’s famed West Coast Seafood Grill is an experience for gourmets and seafood lovers. Fresh catches of fish are steeped in spice blends that are closely guarded secrets in family kitchens of the south west coast.

Each marinade has been specially prepared to bring out the unique flavour and texture of individual fish.

These are then freshly grilled to perfection and served piping hot.

Besides this, a local home maker lady prepares the soft centered appams with crisp edges for the guests during the meal sessions in the courtyard.

Ramasseri idly, a soft idli made in a unique way on steaming clay pots and served in pairs, which is almost extinct is being resurrected at Karavalli for all the connoisseurs of authentic food and cooking techniques.”

The chef commits that they will

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continue to showcase the treasures of coastal region by digging deep into the communities from the region. “Till the time I took up the hotel management course all that I had as expertise was only in terms of helping out my mom and eating her food. I believe in giving all that you have in whatever you do. And that’s what I have been doing,” he says.

Commenting on India’s restaurant scene, chef Thimmaiah believes, “Eating out will be the way of life not just as lifestyle requirements but also taking into consideration the work life patterns. There is space for gourmet restaurants as well as coffee shops, QSRs, take away and home deliveries.

The regional cuisine and restaurants with rare cooking techniques will survive for sure as apart from other reasons, those will be the only places you would get authentic cuisines and their popularity will grow as families increasingly find it difficult to cook up elaborate traditional meals due to time constraints. There will also be improvements in the hygiene and food safety areas.”

But he is also very sure that both traditional and modern gastronomy will co-exist peacefully.

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The village way Following the success of community based tourism projects - guest houses, mountain camp site and houseboat owned and managed by villagers in India, Village Ways is now looking at expanding its vision to Ethiopia and Kenya. By Sudipta Dev he real India lives in its villages and rural tourism is slowly emerging as a niche, albeit nascent, segment. An integral part of any village based tourism initiative is the engagement of the local villagers and the opportunity it can provide to enhance their income. Villages Ways that is involved in several successful community tourism projects in India, is now looking at involving villages in Ethiopia and Kenya in similar initiatives. Village Ways currently has 11 guest houses in Uttarakhand (six in Binsar and five in Saryu and Pindar Valley) along with a campsite near Nanda Devi mountain, a guest house in Rajasthan's Thar desert, a spice house in Karnataka and the recent project of a houseboat in Kerala.

All these accommodation projects are

T

owned and managed by the local villagers.

The communities are partners/share holders in Village Ways. “Our effort is to tie up with either like-minded organisations or help in refurbishment or general standard of whatever accommodation are available,” says Himanshu Pande, director development, Village Ways.

It had all started when Pande who was running his family hotel Mountain Resort, in Khali Estate, Almora, Uttarakhand realised that people from nearby villages were migrating continuously due to lack of employment opportunity. “Khali Estate is inside Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary.

Binsar was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1990 and there were a few restrictions posed on the local communities. This had a

direct impact on the people who started migrating from the sanctuary. The idea of Village Ways is to benefit the villagers from tourism activities,” states Pande. A private limited company was formed, Village Ways raised money and started working in five villages of Binsar. “We have set up little guest houses in the villages, each has three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, a separate place for the guides in the same house to stay. These guest houses are basically for walking holidays. Tourists come to my hotel in Khali Estate and then move onwards for one/two/three nights stay in different villages depending on the duration of their holiday,” mentions Pande. There are guides who walk with guests from one village to another. These villages are far from the roads and cars cannot reach these destinations. Each village has porters to carry the luggage of tourists.

Growth trail Talking about the growth of the initiative Pande says, “We had started this initiative commercially in 2006 but we were working on it from 2002.

After the success in Binsar villages we have turned to five more nearby villages in Uttarakhand. We are working in partnership with a government organisation called Upasak which is involved in livelihood of communities. This is in Pindar Valley - there are five homes in villages and a campsite located near the big

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mountains of Nanda Devi.”

After Uttarakhand, Villages Ways expanded to other places - a little guest house in Hacra village in Rajasthan's Thar desert. Again owned by the community it is around two hours drive from Jodhpur.

The next project was in south India not far from Hubli in Karnataka – the Hulgol Spice House at a place called Sirsi.

Every guest house funded

by Village Ways is owned by the village. Forty per cent of the construction cost for the guest house is given as grant

by Village Ways, and 60 per cent as interest free loan to the village. Each guest house is managed by the village committee, which has a president, a secretary, and other people.

“We've negotiated the rates with them. For example in Binsar there is a bigger committee comprising all the five villages that has fixed the rates of what Village Ways will pay to the communities per guest for boarding as well as lodging.

We have also trained many guides. In Binsar we have 12 guides, out of which two are lady guides who have been trained in flora, fauna, english language, first aid, etc,” informs Pande. Guests cannot give any direct tips or gifts to the villagers. Each village has a Village Development Fund where tourists can make the contribution so that it can benefit all. Each village takes the decision on how to

use the fund.

The criteria of selecting a village include factors like if the community needs an alternate source of livelihood, besides the important fact if the destination has the potential to be marketed as a holiday product. UK has been the key market. “While on one hand a lot of community mobilisation effort is done, on the other hand the marketing team has to work on selling these projects. Whatever revenues Village Ways is making we reinvest in other projects,” says Manisha Pande, director, Village Ways.

She points out that while the concept is what an NGO would do but there is also a marketing side to it to keep projects sustainable in the long term. “It is a social enterprise that takes the initiative to develop the project and also takes initiative to market it,” explains Manisha Pande.

There have been few other positive impacts too. For instance, in Binsar the relationship between Forest Department and villagers have improved with the opening of the guest houses. There is general patrolling of the forests, forest fires have reduced and importantly, wildlife has also increased.

June 1-15, 2013

‘Kollam is fast emerging as the new MICE hotspot in Kerala’ Kollam's first five-star property with 95 sea facing guestrooms and international standard convention facilities was recently awarded the Certificate of Excellence by TripAdvisor. K Sreekumar, managing director, The Quilon Beach Hotel & Convention Centre gives his insights on the emerging MICE destinations in Kerala. By Steena Joy What is the future potential of Kerala as a MICE destination?

Indeed, the potential of Kerala in MICE tourism is quite high and bright as Kerala is an internationally popular tourist destination.

Do convention centres get any state assistance/incentives from the government?

Unfortunately neither the state nor the Centre have so far provided any special assistance or incentives to convention centres like ours.

Which other cities in Kerala show the potential to have an

June 1-15, 2013

international convention centre?

In terms of tourist popularity and preferences the other destinations in Kerala which have high potential in promotion of MICE tourism are Alleppey and Munnar.

How has The Quilon Beach Hotel & Convention Centre helped in driving MICE traffic to Kollam?

Our hotel is one of the biggest beach-side convention centres in India with seven conference halls of different capacities. With the world-

class infrastructure offered by our hotel, Kollam is now fast emerging as the new MICE hotspot in Kerala.

The concept of developing special infrastructure for MICE has made the hotel the preferred destination for the corporate world and business tourism.

What is the total MICE capacity available at the convention centre?

Our international convention centre attached to the hotel can accommodate up to 1500 guest delegates at one time.

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Which are the recent big conventions/business events held here?

Some of the major events successfully conducted at our Hotel are International Conference of Cashew Exporters (Buyer-Seller Meet), Indian Pediatric Doctors Conference, Indian Orthopedic Surgeons Conference, Kerala Medical Association State Conference, KSEB Engineers Association State Conference, ENT Surgeons State Conference, Ranbaxy National Conference and the International Conferences

K Sreekumar organised by Indian Social Sciences, New Delhi Do you plan to set up any more convention centres in other districts of Kerala?

As of now we are concentrating on what we have now but we may look at other possibilities in due course.

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‘The mattress industry in India is still at a nascent stage’ With the size of the mattress industry globally standing at US$ 15 billion, Sudarshan Rai, marketing manager, Emirates Sleep Systems, India talks about the need for educating consumers about the importance of a good mattress and its effects upon one's health and the company's marketing strategies in the India market What is the company's business expansion plan in the India market?

Serta is a US brand originated in North America and headquartered in Chicago. Emirates Sleep Systems, India, is a new venture set up in India as a subsidiary of Dubai Furniture Manufacturing Co. Emirates Sleep Systems has been formed to market Serta branded sleep solution products. The company has a factory at Jejuri near Pune with a capacity to manufacture 200 mattresses per day. We have planned two more factories, one in north and another in the south. The entire country is serviced by our products through the franchise showrooms in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Indore, Surat and other metros and mini metros. We have also launched an e-commerce platform for purchasing mattresses online. The online platform provides exclusive models for customers to choose from and it is delivered free anywhere in India.

What are the marketing strategies chalked out by the company?

In order to develop a

distinct brand identity for Serta in India, our marketing strategy is focused on differentiating in terms of product, distribution, promotion and most importantly educating the Indian consumers about the importance of a good mattress and its effect upon one's health.

Our approach is customer centric and focused on distributing a quality product that offers a good night's sleep to Indian consumers.

How is the company working towards creating a niche for

Sudarshan Rai

itself in terms of product offering in the market?

The products that have been unveiled are the result of extensive survey in the market and the findings are as under: ● No international brand has made significant impact in the Indian market. ● Mattress industry in India

is dominated by cotton, coir and foam mattresses – mostly in the unorganised sector. ● Consumer prefer mattresses ranging from four inches to 12 inches thickness. ● All products have been designed at par with the international standard and adapted to Indian preferences and conditions. ● All products are developed using environment friendly cutting edge technology.

Have there been any kind of market demand in terms of specific variety of mattresses needed?

About 90 per cent of the world’s market is dominated by spring mattresses, while in India the spring mattress category is at a very nascent stage. Indian consumers are yet to taste the best technologically advanced sleep systems.

What are the current market trends in the mattress industry in India and globally?

The mattress industry in India is dominated by the

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small scale and unorganised sectors which specialise in coir, cotton or cheap foam mattresses which cater to more than 90 per cent of the mattress requirement in India. Currently there are no quality manufacturers in the spring mattress category due to which the growth in this segment is very slow.

Globally the mattress industry has advanced and there are many multinational brands and technologically superior products available in the market. But, the mattress industry in India is far behind. This is primarily because of the importance of the mattress is unknown to Indian consumers or they are ignorant about the fact that an investment in the mattress is an investment for one's health.

The customers need to be educated on the importance of how a good mattress can enhance healthy sleep by maintaining spinal alignment; reducing surface pressure, regulating the body temperature and resisting allergens.

June 1-15, 2013

Survey reveals LGBT hotel guests spend more According to a survey by Community Marketing, a partner of ITB Berlin, US gay and lesbian hotel guests spend an average 57 per cent more on their travels than their heterosexual counterparts ate last year, in a survey conducted in the USA by Community Marketing Inc, 5,700 interviewees were asked about their travel habits. According to the survey, it is not only hotels but entire destinations that benefit from LGBT travellers (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender).

According to the survey, 40 per cent of gays and close to the same number of lesbians in the USA said a destination’s degree of gayfriendliness was the main factor influencing their choice of destination. As regarded holiday needs 67 per cent of gays and 66 per cent of lesbian travellers said warm weather was their first requirement, followed by cultural attractions, beaches and cuisine. More than 50 per cent of the respondents said one of their main holiday interests was relaxation. For 35 per cent of gays the second-most important aspect was visiting friends and family, while for 32 per cent of lesbian couples it was spending time with their partners. 33 per cent of gay and 30per cent of lesbian respondents said the location of a hotel significantly influenced their choice of destination. For 30 per cent of both groups the second-most important aspect was the price.

When searching for travel information 59 per cent of lesbian and 54 per cent of gay travellers in the US said they relied on the recommendations of friends and families, after which they preferred travel websites. 41 per cent of gay and 36 per cent of lesbian travellers said they responded to advertising that targeted LGBT audiences.

Over many years, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept, ITB Berlin has committed itself to supporting human rights in tourism, including tolerance and diversity, and is a member of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA).

With its seminars on LGBT tourism in India in

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June 1-15, 2013

2011, an information stand at ITB Asia 2012 in Singapore, an LGBT

information booth at ABAV 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, and international seminars and

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symposiums around the world, the ITB Academy is also showing its support for

the development of this important market segment worldwide.

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Event Tracker Hospitality Trade Shows in 2013-14 Date

Event

Venue

Great Japan Beer Festival

Tokyo

June 3-6, 2013

International Luxury Travel Market Asia

Shanghai

June 4 - 6, 2013

Top Wine China

Beijing

June 5 - 7, 2013

Indo Diary

Bali

June 7 - 9, 2013

Winexpo Georgia

Tbilisi, Georgia

June 6 - 15, 2013

Sweet Eurasia

Istanbul

June 12 - 14, 2013

Food Hospitality World

Bengaluru

June 14-16, 2013

Hospitality Business Fair

Chennai

June 12 - 15, 2013

Propak Asia

Bangkok

June 12 -16, 2013

BBC Good Food Show Birmingham

Birmingham

June 16-20, 2013

Vinexpo

Bordeaux

June 25 – 28, 2013

Fispal Cafe

São Paulo (Brazil)

June 26-28, 2013

World of Coffee

Nice, France

July 11 – 13, 2013

FI Philippines

Manila

August 15 – 17, 2013

Hong Kong International Tea Fair

Hong Kong

August 15-19, 2013

Hong Kong Food Expo

Hong Kong

June 1 - 2, 2013

September 6 - 8, 2013

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Aahar

Bengaluru

September 8 – 10, 2013

Speciality Chocolate Fair

London

September 11-13, 2013

Food Ingredients Asia

Bangkok

September 16-18, 2013

Economy Hotels World Asia

Singapore

September 16-20, 2013

Drinktec

Munich

September 17-20, 2013

Food & Hotel Malaysia 2013

Kuala Lumpur

September 23-24, 2013

South American Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference

Bogota (Columbia)

September 23-25, 2013

Annapoorna World of Food India

Mumbai

Sept 29 - Oct 1, 2013

The Hotel Show

Dubai

Oct 10 – Nov 3, 2013

Salon du Chocolat

Paris

October 18 - 22, 2013

HOST 2013

Milan

November 21 – 24, 2013

Seoul International Cafe Show

Seoul

November 21 – 24, 2013

Coffee Expo Guangzhou

Guangzhou

November 23 - 27, 2013

IGEHO 2013

Basel

December 14 -16, 2013

International Travel & Hospitality Show 2013

Muscat

January 14-15, 2014

HIFI

Gurgaon

February 11 – 13, 2014

Tea & Coffee World Cup - Europe

Warsaw (Poland)

February 12-15, 2014

BioFach 2014

Nuremberg, Germany

EXPRESS HOSPITALITY

www.expresshospitality.com

June 1-15, 2013

Best General Managers of China accolade awarded to woman GM in HK The GM of the Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong, Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong and Cosmo Hotel Mongkok, Anita Chan, has been honoured with the distinction of Best General Managers China at the recent 8th China Starlight Awards eing the first woman in Hong Kong to receive the Best General Managers of China award in eight years, the prestigious accolade not only recognises Anita Chan’s considerable achievements, but also demonstrates once again that in the maledominated role of hotel GM, women can indeed match or exceed the performance of their most elite male counterparts.

Since joining Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong as GM in 2004, Ms Chan has significantly increased the property's revenues while elevating its brand image through a number of innovative initiatives.

Her accomplishments so impressed the hotel's owners that they invited her to oversee business at two other properties as well.

She now concurrently serves as GM of the three hotels, making her one of the few female GMs worldwide with responsibility for nearly 1,000 guest rooms.

Under Chan’s leadership, the Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong has won numerous awards, the most recent ones including ‘Best Themed Hotels of China’ in the 8th China Hotel Starlight Awards and Tripadvisor's ‘Certificate of Excellence’ 2012. “People often ask me to explain the secret of my success, and my answer is that I have a true passion for what I do,” says Chan.

A graduate of the University of Hawaii where she majored in travel industry management, Chan held key positions in sales and marketing in the former Ramada Renaissance Hong Kong and Peninsula Hotels Group prior to joining Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong. Other professional commendations she has received include being named the Adrian Award eMarketer of the Year for Asia Pacific.

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June 1-15, 2013

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Edge

T E C H N O L O G Y F O R H O S P I TA L I T Y

TECHTALK

‘The lessons we have learned in Indian market will serve us well as we expand internationally’ RezNext bridges the gap between a hotel’s reservation system and online booking channels, Michael Kistner, member of Board, Reznext explains how the solutions offered by the company can help hospitality properties across all market segment and size increase their occupancy and grow revenue. By Sudipta Dev What is your perception of the Indian market and your expectations from it for RezNext solutions?

India is one of the world’s largest tourist destinations and will receive 25 million tourists by 2015. There will also be a shortage of 100,000 hotel rooms. This points to continuous growth in the Indian travel and tourism industry. RezNext will play a major role here. Our solution set helps hotels attract an increasing number of guests and grow occupancy. Our GDS and web booking engine will help hotels attract foreign guests, the online reputation management solution enables hotels to better connect with potential guest.

RezNext will bridge the gap, between a hotel’s reservation system and online booking channel, and empower them to grow revenue.

How does a hotel benefit by implementing the RezNext system?

Re z N ex t offers a complete set of solutions that consist of channel management, revenue management, GDS Connect, Web Booking Engine, RoomsTonite- a mobile app for last-minute hotel room booking, online reputation management solution, Guest Dynamix - our Feedback and Loyalty Management Solution,

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influence a channel and easily push hotel inventory and rates to the most desirable channels. From the customer perspective, potential guests can view and book rooms and receive instant confirmation. This is critical in the internet age.

Michael Kistner Business Intelligence Solution, central reservation system and email marketing tool all accessible through a user-friendly dashboard called ReX. The RezNext solution set allows the hotel to automate the

management and display of room’s inventory to online channels.

The advantage to hoteliers is that the hotel gets an automated system that updates their property management system without any human intervention. Hotels can now www.expresshospitality.com

What are the specific cost advantages for the hospitality sector?

There are numerous cost advantages from leveraging the RezNext solutions. To begin with, RezNext automates a host of process from a single click updation on the channel manager, to automated room booking confirmation from the hotels property management system without the intervention of hotel staff. All this helps a hotel optimise its use of manpower, ensure accuracy and efficiency and still keep escalating

costs in check.

Which category of hotels are these solutions most suitable for?

The RezNext platform can be deployed to any hotel, regardless of market segment, category or location to leverage the power of technology and the internet.

Whether the hotel is a chain, independent or boutique hotel, a resort, mid-sized or limited service hotel, they can choose to offer seamless connectivity between their property management system and online channels, enhance their online visibility and simplify room bookings.

Are you also looking at midmarket hotels in tier II and tier III cities in India?

We already have a foot print in tier II and tier III cities in India. RezNext will help us grow and consolidate our presence across additional geographies. RezNext can be effectively utilised by both multi starred and budget hotels.

What is your promotional strategy in India?

We have an ever expanding solution set. We are partnering with a host of best-of-breed solution providers to offer these services. We believe our customers are our strongest brand ambassadors. RezNext will first be deployed at the 3200 hotels that access the IDS NEXT property management system (we are a fully owned subsidiary of IDS NEXT), we then plan to grow into offering our solutions to the rest of the market. The Indian market is one of the world’s largest hospitality and technology markets. The lessons we have learned hence will serve us well as we expand internationally.

June 1-15, 2013

E|D|G|E SURVEY

AsiaRooms unveils results from Global Traveller Confidence Index 2013 Of over 25 countries surveyed, results show that travellers from Singapore lead in online accommodation bookings in the past 12 months he results of the research on global travel trends by AsiaRooms – an online travel accommodation site based in Asia, and offering rooms in over 60,000 properties worldwide revealed that travellers in Asia proved most inclined to book their business and leisure trips online in the past year.

Now in its second year running, the AsiaRooms Traveller Confidence Index (TCI) tracks leading indicators for travel propensity, spending confidence, and regional momentum to provide insights into the travel trends of both consumers and businesses from a demand perspective.

Clarence Lin, brand development lead, AsiaRooms, says, “This year’s index reveals continuing appetite for overseas travel and growing popularity of online accommodation bookings, especially in Asia.”

This year’s index revealed the following interesting global travel trends:

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Travel and spending patterns In the past 12 months, 75.2 per cent of respondents in Asia made online bookings compared to the global average of 65.4 per cent. This is a 4.9 per cent increase from last year’s index and is slightly more than double the global average increase of 2.3 per cent.

Singapore travellers topped the list with 84.3 per cent of respondents having made an online booking in the past 12 months. On the other end of the spectrum, the Latin American region reflected a 2.8 per cent decrease in online bookings, with only 48.8 per cent of respondents having booked online in the past 12 months.

Travellers less price-sensitive Respondents are still generally prudent with their purse strings, with 57.7 per cent of them stating affordability as a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months. However, price is less of a factor in influencing accommodation decisions this year - there is a 9.4 per cent decrease in price sensitivity compared to the last index.

Additionally, compared to the last index, there was a 9.1 per cent decrease in number of respondents who stated that the global economic situation would be a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months.

The most significant change in price sensitivity is reflected in Asia, with 17.5 per cent lesser number of respondents stating cost-savings as a primary cause for lower accommodation usage in the next 12 months. 31.5 June 1-15, 2013

per cent of them stated that future accommodation usage would be affected by the general economic situation; this is an 18.4 per cent drop from last year and is also lower than the global average of 34.2 per cent.

Leisure travel Approximately 60 per cent of men and women who booked accommodations online in the last 12 months went overseas for leisure. However, greater disparity between the genders for overseas leisure travel is reflected among regions. In Europe, US and Latin America, men travelled overseas for leisure more than their female counterparts, at 2.8 per cent more and 1 per cent more respectively. On the other hand, women in the Asia Pacific buck the global trend with 53 per cent of women having travelled for leisure overseas compared to just 51 per cent of men in the last 12 months.

Search and booking patterns Globally, 29 per cent of all respondents indicated that they prefer to pay for their accommodation only during check-out as opposed to paying a basic room rate in advance (24 per cent) or paying an advance deposit (23 per cent). Worldwide, the preferred mode of payment by majority of travellers is by credit/charge card (70 per cent) followed by debit card (37 per cent).

Social media and mobile travel A majority of travellers (75 per cent) are active on an average of one to three social media platforms, visiting these sites between one to three times daily.

Around the world, people are becoming increasingly influenced by social media for their travel decisions.

Nearly half (53.4 per cent) of all respondents indicated that people within their social media circles influenced their decisions on online accommodation usage; more than a quarter (28.2 per cent) also shared that even strangers on social media sites managed to influence their travel-related decisions.

On average, more than half (58 per cent) of the respondents in this year’s index indicated that they own a mobile phone with both Wi-Fi capabilities and mobile data plan subscriptions.The number of people who own tablets with Wi-Fi and data subscription plans also jumped to 27 per cent, up by eight per cent from last year, driven mainly by the increase in Asia.

This increase in ease of connectivity has led to a surge in volume for travel-related searches and purchases with almost half (46 per cent) of the

respondents from this index searching for their travel accommodations with mobile devices. This is a nine per cent increase from the last index.

Respondents from Asia were most at ease with using their mobile devices for their travel accommodation needs, with 59 per cent of them using their devices to search for travel accommodations online in the past 12 months, compared to the global average of 46 per cent. Respondents from Asia also showed the highest propensity to make a travel-related transaction online.

The usage of mobile devices for travel-related decision-making is set to increase as more than half (53 per cent) of respondents have indicated a likelihood of using these devices in the future.

In addition to the key global findings, there are also several Singaporespecific findings from this year’s index that are note-worthy: ● Singapore travellers stayed more nights overseas and spent more per night on accommodation in the 12 past months as compared to the global and regional average. Respondents in Singapore spent an average of US$ 132, beating the global and regional average of US$ 115 and US$ 122 per night respectively. ● Singapore travellers stayed an average of 7.2 nights overseas in the past 12 months for business - higher than the global and regional average of 6.5 and 6.3 nights respectively, and spent US$ 23 more per night than the global average of US$ 120.

In comparison, US business travellers stayed double the number of nights overseas for business (15.6 nights) but their business accommodation spend per night was lower at US$ 111. ● For leisure, Singapore travellers stayed an average of 7.5 nights overseas – lower compared to the global average of 8.6 but higher than the regional average of 7.0 nights.

However, their leisure accommodation spent per night (US$ 120) was higher than the global and regional average at US$ 110 and US$ 119 respectively. ● Nearly a third (30.8 per cent) of women in Singapore travelled overseas for business compared to the global and Asia Pacific average (23 per cent and 28 per cent respectively).

They travelled twice as much as their counterparts from the Americas (Latin America and the USA) and also Europe at 15.3 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively.

Significantly more women in Singapore (96.2 per cent) travelled overseas for leisure as opposed to the global average of 60.2 per cent.

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49

Hospitality

Life

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

A different service Costa Coffee outlets in India are one of the rare few in the restaurant/F&B retail sector, who have no qualms about having differentlyabled staff on the front end of the job. With 18 per cent of employees being differently abled, Santhosh Unni, CEO, Costa Coffee India speaks about behind the scene preparations and how he intends to take the programme forward. By Sayoni Bhaduri he fact that the hospitality industry provides a fulfilling and enriching employment opportunity for those willing is proved yet again as an industry which does not shy away from hiring differently- abled individuals.

Hotels like ITC and Lemon Tree have been pioneers in the lodging space, restaurants are not far behind as UK based cafe chain Costa Coffee shows in India.

For the last five years Costa Coffee in India has been employing individuals with hearing and speech disability at their outlets. And not just at the back-end but front-end interacting with guests, taking orders and much more. Today, Costa Coffee in India employs around 120 special people across its outlets and over the next two years plans to have atleast two-three such employees in each store. An initiative that started and is still is only in India, Santhosh Unni, CEO, Costa Coffee India says, “This initiative, started in 2007, is an attempt on the part of Costa

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Santhosh Unni Coffee to provide mainstream employment to hearing impaired in our country and allow for their assimilation in jobs being created in India’s new economy.

Traditionally, many organisations especially F&B/hospitality/retail sector jobs which demand high level of customer interface, may have reservations about hiring people with disabilities.

However, at Costa we were convinced that hearing and

speech impaired people can prove to be excellent employees, with high level of motivation and commitment, and we have been proved right. We are very pleased that our discerning consumers appreciate this sensitivity and encourage us in this endeavour.”

Training for a job that could be considered high stress at times, is crucial.

Unni agrees as he says, “Training of not just the special people, but the rest of the store staff and managers to understand and manage these people effectively are conducted.” A rigorous training module is conducted for the differently-abled employees to ensure smooth operations and also to ensure there is no compromise on service to our customers. “The opportunity to interact with customers on a daily basis rather than being relegated to a non-interactive function has boosted their confidence and selfbelief,” says Unni. Special modules on customer interaction have been incorporated for them to deal with any

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possible situation. At every store, the Red Shirt, better known as the store leader, has to go through an intensive education and understanding of sign language before he or she is given responsibility of managing a store.

It is not just at unit levels that the senstisation takes place, Unni says that the success of the programme lies in the fact that it is part of the work culture of the organisation. “While leadership, vision and drive are critical, it is more important how the organisation at large is sensitised on the concept of giving,” he says. The concept of 'giving' is what is inculcated.

“Unless the organisation, which is a reflection of varied demographics, social classes and strata truly believes in the concept, no socially relevant activity can ever be implemented successfully,” he adds.

As with case with any other service sector business, disgruntled customers are part and parcel of the job. “We need to understand that because of their disabil-

ity they are constantly under stress of trying harder to match their counterparts.

This at times leads to bouts of psychological stress which the rest of the organisation needs to handle sensitively and resolve continuously though motivation and counselling,” explains Unni.

He takes great pride in the fact that consumers support has been tremendous. He goes on to add, “It is indeed rare that any particularly difficult situation has arisen in this context. In fact, many a times, customers who have been angry over any issue related to product/service immediately calm down when they know that they are being served by our special employee.” The feedback from large number of customers indicates a double benefit – consumers say this experience has taught them the virtue of patience and understanding in this fast paced life and developed new respect for such people.

The success of an initiative is satisfying for all concerned. “While our specially-abled employees are happy with the experience of working in an up-market coffee chain with good career prospects, we are happy that we have an extremely dedicated group of employees who strive hard to succeed in their work place, with high level of motivation,” he says. So much so that Unni is looking at taking the current 18 per cent of differently-abled workforce at Costa Coffee in India to 25 per cent in the next 18 months fine tuning and weaving it into the company's CSR programme.

June 1-15, 2013

H|O|S|P|I|T|A|L|I|T|Y

L|I|F|E

Movements Absolute Hotel Services India Absolute Hotel Services India has appointed Akshay Moza as regional director of sales. In the new role, he will work closely with corporate sales and marketing team to develop sales and marketing strategies, leading the team in implementation of activities as well as driving revenue for each hotel in India and Middle East under the management of Absolute Hotel Services India. Moza has more than 12 years of experience in sales and marketing working for many well known hotel chains in London, including Hilton, Sol-Melia Group and Millennium & Copthorne.

Hablis Hotels

Hyatt Regency Mumbai

Hindustan Construction Company

K Srinivasan has joined the Hablis Hotels as vice president and head of operations. He will oversee implementation of the plans, human resource, training, F&B, rooms and banquet operations, engineering and maintenance; smooth functioning of all other operational services and standards at Hablis. He has held senior positions in Taj Group of Hotels,The Carlton, Kodaikanal,The Residency, Chennai, Viceroy, Hyderabad, Al Khaleej Group of hotels, Dubai and MGM Hotels & Resorts.

Hyatt Regency Mumbai has appointed Kedar Bobde as executive chef.

With over 19 years’ experience, Chef Bobde has been an integral member of the Hyatt family and brings his varied and extensive expertise to Hyatt Regency Mumbai’s outlets – Glasshouse, STAX and The Bakery.

Hindustan Construction Company has announced the appointment of Rajgopal Nogja as group chief operating officer and whole-time director. He will oversee the functioning of group companies HCC, Lavasa Corporation, Steiner AG, HCC Real Estate, Highbar Technologies, Charosa Wineries and HCC Aviation.

ITC Maratha

The Leela Palace New Delhi

Prashant Chadha takes on the role of food & beverage manager at ITC Maratha. In his new stint, he will be heading a dedicated team responsible for managing restaurants, large banquets operations and butlers for ITC Maratha. He was a key member of the pre-opening team of the newly opened ITC Grand Chola.

The Leela Palace New Delhi has appointed Kunal Chauhan as the resident manager of The Leela Palace New Delhi.

He will oversee and drive operations and initiatives for the group’s flagship property in New Delhi. Prior to this, he was associated with The Leela Group spearheading the F&B affairs at The Leela Kempinski Gurgaon.

Goa Marriott Resort & Spa

Courtyard by Marriott, Chennai

Rahul Korgaokar has been appointed as director of food and beverage at Goa Marriott Resort & Spa. He started his career in July 2004 as restaurant manager of India Jones, Trident, Nariman Point.

He then moved on to Tiffin and later to Vetro, The Oberoi, Mumbai, as preopening restaurant manager.

Satish Srinivasamurthy has been appointed as food and beverage manager at Courtyard by Marriott, Chennai.

His work involves in developing the guest experience with regards to food and beverage, assisting in the recruitment and selection of all food and beverage employees, and also operationally setting up of food and beverage department for the property.

June 1-15, 2013

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The Claridges, New Delhi The Claridges, New Delhi has appointed Urvashi Malik as manager – marketing communications.

In her new role she will be responsible

for driving PR and marketing campaigns, deciding marketing strategies, media planning and responsible for all the other marketing communications initiatives for the The Claridges New Delhi and The Claridges Mussoorie.

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LIST YOUR COMPANY FOR FREE Amusement, Leisure & Health Club Equipment A01 Advertising Balloon A02 Air Hockey A03 Amusement Park / FEC Equipment A04 Beauty Salon Equipment A05 Boats A06 Bowling Alleys A07 Chemicals for Swimming Pool A08 Coin Operated Toys / Electric Cars A09 Electronic & Battery Filtration Plants A10 Fountains A11 Garden Furniture A12 Garden Umbrella A13 Golf Equipments A14 Guest Amenities (Refer F20-Guest Amenities) A15 Guest Transportation A16 Health & Fitness Equipment A17 Inflatables A18 Juke Box A19 Playground Equipment A20 Pool Table Manufacturers A21 Redemption Machine A22 Ride Stimulator A23 Swimming Pool Equipment & Supplies A24 Walkway Tents & Marquees Bakery B01 Automatic Pillow Pack / Biscuit Packaging Machines B02 Bakery Enzymes B03 Bakery Equipments B04 Bakery Fats B05 Baking Pans B06 Biscuits B07 Blenders B08 Bread B09 Bread Slicer B10 Cake Decoration B11 Cakes B12 Confectionery B13 Dough Kneader B14 Dough Sheeters B15 Ingredients & Additives B16 Moulds B17 Ovens B18 Planetary Mixers B19 Ready - Made Cake Mixes B20 Sugar & Sweetener B21 Wheat Flour & Rice B22 Yeast B23 Zero Calorie Sweetener (Refer C46 - Zero Calorie Sweetener) Food & Beverage C01 Beverages-Alcoholic C02 Beverages-Non Alcoholic C03 Canned Foods C04 Cashew C05 Cocoa & Chocolate Products C06 Coconut & Coconut Milk Powder C07 Coffee C08 Custard Powder C09 Dry Fruits C10 Dry Tea C11 Edible Oil C12 Flavour C13 Food Paste C14 Fresh Fruits & Vegetables C15 Fresh Meat, Poultry & Sea Food

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D40 Paper Napkins / Tissues D41 Paper Products D42 Pepper Mills D43 Plastic Food Containers D44 Polythene Bags D45 Portion Packed Sachets & Blisters D46 Restaurant Linen (Refer G41 - Linen) D47 Sign Board (Refer E60 - Signages) D48 Silverware D49 Straws D50 Table Mats D51 Tableware {Ceramic} D52 Tableware {Porcelain} D53 Thermoware D54 Tinplate D55 Tongs D56 Toothpick D57 Trays D58 Trolley D59 Vending Machines Tea / Coffee (Refer H15 - Dispenser-Vending Machines) D60 Water Coolers (Refer H63 - Water Coolers) D61 Weighing Scale D62 Wine Chillers Engineering & Technology E01 AC Plant & Boiler Maintenance Chemicals E02 AC Repair & Maintenance Service E03 AC Spare Parts & Refrigerant Gases E04 Access Control System E05 Air Conditioning E06 Air Pollution Control Systems E07 Air Purification E08 Audio / Visual Equipment E09 Auto Water Level Controller E10 Automatic Sliding E11 Blowers E12 Boilers & Geysers E13 Building Management Systems (BMS) E14 Cable Accessories E15 Cables E16 Cash Registers E17 CD ROM E18 CRM Solutions E19 Chilling Plants E20 Computer-Hardware & Software E21 Conferencing Equipment E22 Cooling Systems E23 Cooling Towers E24 Data Centre / Infrastructure Management E25 Data Mining / Business Intelligence E26 Disc Jockey Equipment E27 Drain Cleaning Equipment E28 Dryers & Dehumidifiers E29 Earth Moving Equipment E30 Electrical Equipment & Supply E31 Electronic Ballast E32 Electronic Door Locks E33 Electronic Safes E34 Elevators & Escalators E35 Energy Conservation Systems E36 Energy Control Systems E37 Fire Fighting Equipment E38 Generator Sets E39 Hotel Management Software E40 Hotel Online Reservation Systems E41 In-room Entertainment Systems E42 Insulation Materials E43 Internet Service Provider E44 Key Tags E45 Kiosk E46 LCD / LED TV

E47 Locks E48 Luminaries E49 Mobile Applications E50 Office Automation Products E51 Online Marketing E52 Peripherals E53 Point Of Sale {POS} E54 Process Control Instruments E55 Property Management E56 Pumps & Spare E57 RFID Solutions E58 Safes E59 Security Equipment & Supplies E60 Signages E61 Solar Energy Equipment E62 Sound System E63 Steel E64 Survillence Equipments E65 Switch Gear E66 Telecommunications E67 Television / Interactive TV E68 Temperature Control System E69 Thermal & Acoustic Insulation E70 Touch Monitors E71 Trackball E72 Tube & Pipe Fitting E73 UPS System E74 Valves E75 Video Conferencing Equipments / Softwares E76 Web Services E77 Wi-fi E78 Workforce Management Housekeeping F01 Air Curtains F02 Air Fresheners F03 Bed Spring / Rollaway F04 Bird Control Systems F05 Blanket / Duvets F06 Brooms F07 Brushes F08 Brushes / Mops / Scrubbers F09 Cleaning Products & Equipments F10 Contract Housekeeping Companies F11 Curtains F12 Cushion & Cushion Covers F13 Disinfectants F14 Disposal Hand Gloves & Aprons F15 Down & Feather Products F16 Dryers-Hair & Hand F17 Floor Cleaning Machine F18 Fly Traps / Killers F19 Garbage Bags F20 Guest Amenities F21 Hangers F22 Housekeeping Services F23 Irons / Ironing Boards F24 Kitchen Towels Rolls F25 Ladders F26 Laundry Equipment F27 Laundry / Newspaper Bags F28 Linen Bath (Refer G41 - Linen) F29 Linen Bed (Refer G41 - Linen) F30 Madeup F31 Mattress (Refer G46 - Mattress & Cushion) F32 Mini Bars F33 Mirrors F34 Napkins F35 Napthalene Balls F36 Odour Control Systems F37 Pest Control

F38 Pest Repellent F39 Pillow F40 Polishes F41 Sensor Tap F42 Shoe / Slippers / Footwear F43 Shoe Shining Machine F44 Soap Dispenser F45 Soap, Detergent & Chemical F46 Stationery Items F47 Suitings & Shirtings F48 Tissue Papers F49 Toilet Tissue Rolls F50 Towels F51 Uniforms F52 Urinal & Toilet Flusher F53 Vaccum Cleaners F54 Waste Bin F55 Weighing Scales (Refer D61 - Weighing Scales) Interior G01 Aluminium Products G02 Artificial Lawns & Plants G03 Automatic Door Closer G04 Awnings, Canopies & Shades G05 Bathroom Equipment & Sanitaryware G06 Bathroom Sealants G07 Brassware G08 Building Material G09 Cane Furniture / Products G10 Carpets G11 Ceramic Tiles G12 Chairs G13 Chandeliers G14 Clocks G15 Curtain Drapes / Rails G16 Decorative Glass G17 Decorative Light Fittings G18 Doors & Windows G19 Drapery Rods & Curtains G20 Energy Saving Lamps G21 False Ceilings G22 Fans G23 Floor Covers G24 Floorings G25 Frameless Glass Showers G26 Frames G27 Furnishing & Fabrics G28 Furniture & Fixture G29 Fusion Glass G30 Gate Automation G31 Gates & Grills G32 Glass Block / Silicon Sealants G33 Glass for Door & Window G34 Glass Tile G35 Granite G36 Hardware G37 Laminates

G38 Lamps & Lamp Shades G39 Light & Light System G40 Lighting Control Solution G41 Linen G42 Locks G43 Marble Tables G44 Marbles G45 Matting System G46 Mattress & Cushion G47 Mirrors Cabinets G48 Paintings G49 Paints G50 Pavers & Tiles G51 Plating G52 Plywood G53 Rubber Wood / Solid Wood Furniture G54 Spiral Staircase G55 Stained Glass & Related Products G56 Switches G57 Tent & Roofing Fabrics G58 Venetian Blinds G59 Vertical & Roller Blinds G60 Wall Covering / Paper G61 Wall To Wall Carpets G62 Weather Sheets G63 Window Covering G64 Window Tracing Products G65 Wood Lacquers G66 Wooden Floorings G67 Wrought Iron Furniture Kitchen Equipment H01 Automatic Gas Operated Pizza Ovens H02 Bain Marie (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H03 Bar Equipment (Refer D07 - Bar Equipment) H04 Bottle Coolers H05 Bottled Water Dispenser (Refer H64 - Water Dispensers) H06 Can Openers H07 Catering Equipments H08 Centrifugal Blowers H09 Combi Ovens H10 Commercial Kitchen Equipment H11 Cutlery (Refer D18 - Cutlery) H12 Deep Freezer (Refer H51 - Refrigeration Equipment) H13 Dish Washer H14 Dishwarmer H15 Dispenser-Vending Machine H16 Display Counter / Refrigerated Display H17 Dumb Elevator H18 Electric Chimney H19 Electric / Gas Deep Fryers H20 Exhaust Fans & Ventilators H21 Fryers H22 Garbage Processing Machine

H23 Gastronorm Pans H24 Gelato H25 Griller H26 Grinder / Mixer H27 Holloware H28 Hot Plate (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H29 Ice Box H30 Ice Carving Sets H31 Ice Cream Bags H32 Ice Cream Dispenser H33 Ice Cream Freezer H34 Ice Cream Machine H35 Ice Cube Machine H36 Induction Cookers H37 Industrial Mixers H38 Kitchen Cleaning Solution H39 Kitchen Design & Planning H40 Kitchen Equipment Maintenance & Service Kitchen Exhaust System H41 Kitchen Utensils (Refer D30 - Kitchenware) H42 LPG H43 Mincer H44 Noodles & Pasta Machines H45 Ovens (Refer B17 - Ovens) H46 Popcorn Making Machine H47 Portable Cabins H48 Pressure Cooker (Refer H10-Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H49 Refrigerated Display Counters (Refer H51 - Refrigeration Equipment) H50 Refrigerated Transport Containers H51 Refrigeration Equipment H52 Sauce Pans (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H53 Shawerma H54 Slush Machine H55 Softy Machine H56 Stoves & Burners (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H57 Tandoor H58 Thick Shake Machine H59 Turnkey Project Consultancy (Refer J19 - Turnkey Project Consultancy) H60 Utility Vehicle (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H61 Vegetable Cutting Machine (Refer H10 - Commercial Kitchen Equipment) H62 Walk-In-Cold Rooms H63 Water Coolers H64 Water Dispensers Waste Management & Water Treatment Technology

I04 Food Waste Treatement System I05 Non-Chemical Water Treatment I06 Reverse Osmosis Plants I07 Sewage Treatment Plants I08 Solid Waste Management (Wet/Dry) / Garbage Disposal Systems I09 Water Chlorinator I10 Water Disinfectant I11 Water Filtration Plant I12 Water Purifiers I13 Water Related Technologies I14 Water Tanks I15 Water Treatment Chemicals I16 Water Treatment Plants Consultants J01 Acoustic Consultants J02 Architect J03 Bar Consultants J04 Civil Consultants J05 Environment Consultants J06 F& B Consultants J07 General Insurance for Hotels J08 Hotel Consultants J09 Interior Consultants J10 Kitchen Consultants J11 Landscape Consultants J12 Laundry Consultants J13 Leisure & Amusement Park Consultants J14 Project Consultants J15 Real Estate Consultants J16 Recruitment Consultants J17 Spa Consultants J18 Technical Consultants J19 Turnkey Project Consultancy Spa & Wellness K01 Aromatherapy Diffusers K02 Beauty Care Products K03 Chill Shower Equipment K04 Cosmetology Equipments K05 Essential Oils K06 Hair Styling Equipments K07 Hot Water Generators K08 Hydrotherapy Equipment K09 Indoor Air Quality Equipment K10 Jacuzzi Equipment K11 Massage Chairs K12 Massage Tables K13 Nail Stations K14 Nutrition Supplements K15 Sauna Equipment K16 Spa / Salon Toiletries K17 Steam Equipment

I01 Drain Cleanng Equipment I02 Drinking Water Plants I03 Effluent Treatment Plants

Listing facility also available online at www.expresshospitality.com/hpf Company Name: ____________________________________________________________________________________ Contact Person: ______________________________________ Designation: _____________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________________________________________________ City: __________________________ Pin code: ______________________________ State: __________________________ Tel.: _________________________________ Fax: ________________________ Mobile: ___________________________ Email: ______________________________________________ Website: _______________________________________ Product Codes: _____________________________________________________________________________________ *Please attach extra sheet if contact details do not fit in the area provided.

Yes I am intersested in paid advertising in HPF 2013 ONLY TEN FREE LISTINGS PER COMPANY WILL BE PERMITTED ENTRIES SHOULD REACH BEFORE 30TH JUNE, 2013 Mail all forms to: Darshana Chauhan, Express Hospitality, Global Fairs & Media Pvt. Ltd., 2nd Floor, Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400 021.

For any other queries, Contact - Darshana Chauhan on Tel.: +91 22 67440499 • E-mail: express.hpf@gmail.com

H|O|S|P|I|T|A|L|I|T|Y

L|I|F|E

CSR INITIATIVE

Creating a buzz With Plan BEE, the latest CSR programme from ONYX Hospitality Group, the company focuses on conservation of natural biodiversity in a bid to save the Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) from extinction

he launch of Plan BEE focuses on two ONYX properties in Bangkok.

Luxury serviced residence, Oriental Residence Bangkok will become the first serviced residence or hotel with an urban beekeeping initiative in Bangkok, in line with its CSR theme of managing biodiversity. Along with hotel brand Shama’s CSR theme, stimulating entrepreneurship and alleviating poverty, Shama Sukhumvit Bangkok is also planning to introduce a programme to educate the farming community on the benefits of Asian honeybee husbandry. Honeybees are key pollinators in the environment today. It is estimated that one-third of all the food plants we eat depend specifically on bees for pollination. In spite of the important role bees play in the global food chain and ecosystem, honeybees, as with many pollinators around the world, have come under threat due to a number of factors, including the use of pesticides and planting of genetically-engi-

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neered crops, loss of habitat and biodiversity, increases in various pests and diseases due to changing weather conditions, pollution and poor husbandry techniques.

Urban beekeeping Alongside the Saffron brand, with its CSR focus on biodiversity, Oriental Residence Bangkok will be the first serviced residence to undertake an urban beekeeping initiative in Bangkok. The threats faced by the Asian honeybee are so extreme, that some of the last remaining sanctuaries for this delicate creature are city centres. The urban beekeeping project at Oriental Residence Bangkok will be the initial step made by ONYX to introduce urban beekeeping to Thailand and beyond. ONYX has partnered with Raitong Organics Farm to ensure the successful delivery of this programme. Apiculturists (bee experts) will visit the property to harvest the honey and educate the team members on the skills and techwww.expresshospitality.com

niques of nurturing the Asian honeybee using beefriendly modified Warrétype hives. This ritual will be part of an educational exercise for team members, guests, urban residents and nearby schools to learn about the importance of nurturing a healthy urban environment for greater biodiversity.

Rural beekeeping As part of the Shama CSR focus to stimulate entrepreneurship for poverty alleviation, Shama Sukhumvit Bangkok is looking to partner with Raitong Organics Farm to introduce a rural beekeeping initiative.

Through this scheme, Shama will provide the farming community with the resources to maintain healthy Asian honeybee populations and also encourage them to earn a supplementary income.

Shama and Raitong Organics Farm will provide professional training and education on basic Asian honeybee biology and also the important ecological

role bees play in the environment.Commenting on Plan BEE, Lisa Thomas, director of corporate social responsibility, ONYX Hospitality Group said, “ONYX Hospitality Group has introduced a number of initiatives across its four brands, each of which in their own way aims to help create a sustainable future.

ONYX aligns its values and business practices with a sense of connection to the environment and giving back to local communities.

Plan BEE is an initial step to introduce urban beekeeping to Thailand and beyond. We believe we can help by creating a safe urban sanctuary for the honeybees driven out of rural areas by pesticides. Honey generated from these bees will be used at Oriental Residence Bangkok as an ingredient in the dishes served in Café Claire and Mandopop, and we will develop our bee story even further, by educating our guests, colleagues and urban residents on the importance of bee conservation.”

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ONE STOP SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR

KITCHEN NEEDS

your eye to the future...

223, Blue Rose Industrial Premises Western Express Highway, Borivali (E), Mumbai - 400 066, Tel.: +91-22-28700281 / 42089200, Fax: +91-22-28704108 / 28116196 | Email : acetechnologies@vsnl.net Website: www.ace-technologiesgroup.com | www.acetechnologiesgroup.com

One Stop Solution for Spare Parts

LF Spa, Italy

TRUSTED SINCE 1982 FOR 100% GENUINE

SPARE PARTS COMPONENTS For Food & Hospitality Equipment

PREMIER MONDIAL Food Equipment & Parts P. Limited 1, Akurli Industrial Estate, Akurli Road, Kandivli (E), Mumbai - 400101, India +91-9320609173 / +91-9320609174 / sales@premier-mondial.com

www.premier-mondial.com Visit us at Food Hospitality World 2013 Bengaluru | Booth A-13 58

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Express Hospitality Business Avenues Ideal for Hotels, Restaurants, Bakeries and Fast Food Restaurant

From the popular Marcato Pasta and Noodle Machines Introducing the Biscuit Maker

2-A2 Court Chambers, 35,New Marine Lines, Mumbai 400 020, INDIA. Phone: +91 (0) 22-22 00 64 77, +91(0) 22-66 34 68 16. Fax:+91(0) 22 22 00 65 56.

E-mail: indiaeatspasta@gmail.com, Website: www.indiaeatspasta.com

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50 g Glass Bottles

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GASTRONORM PAN

KNIFE ®

•

Stainless Steel 304 (18/8) Satin Finish.

•

Perforated Pans, Drain Shelf, Silicon Lid.

NSF Certified HACCP Colour Coding

•

Polycarbonate Pans in Clear & Black

•

Long edge retention through the high-quality German Steel.

•

Stackable Design

•

•

One of the Widest Range Offering

Forged of a single piece of steel, the bolstered blade provides high stability.

•

Performs under extreme Operating Environment

•

•

Hygiene Angles gives easy access to the contents

Revolutionary handles feature the combination of Santoprene® for non-slip comfortable grip and the polypropylene for tough use.

ORDER RACK / K.O.T. HOLDER

BAKERY & DAIRY RAW POULTRY & CHICKEN COOKED MEATS RAW MEATS

•

Wall mounted.

•

Attractive, sleek design enhances front-ofhouse and open kitchen appearance.

RAW FISH SEAFOOD

•

Tough aluminium construction and glass marbles ensure durable, rust free, long life.

•

Keep orders in clear view during preparation.

•

Ball bearing action provides clean look & one handed smooth sliding action.

•

Available in 12”, 18”, 24”, 36”, 48” & 60”.

•

Ideal for kitchen, garage, office & work place.

VEGETABLE & FRUIT

Cutting Boards are routed to size in standard (In Six Colors) 12” x 18” x 1” & 18” x 24” x 1” Blanks (smooth edges)

HIGH DENSITY COLOUR CODED CUTTING BOARDS •

Special surface finish insures long product life and will not dull knives.

•

No moisture, odour or bacteria absorbent, nonporous, easy to clean, dishwasher safe.

INDUCTION RANGE COOKWARE

F & B SERVICE PRODUCT

• Designed to meet international standard

• F & B Service Product

• Suitable for Induction, Ceramic, Electric and Gas

• GN PC & PP Pans

• Heavy Gauge Stainless Steel

• Ingredient Bins

• Bar Accessories • Food Storage Containers • Glass & Plate Racks

STEC STAINLESS STEEL PVT. LTD. Regd. Office : # 1, Hakoba Compound, Bombay Cotton Mills Estate, 77, Dattaram Lad Marg, Kala Chowki Road, Mumbai - 400 033, India.

Phone : 022 - 2370 9141 / 42, 93200 29141 / 42 / 43 - Fax : 022 - 2377 1135

®

HOTELWARE

SUNNEX “Since 1929” ®

June 1-15, 2013

Email : sales@stecindia.co.in / stecindia@mtnl.net.in - Web : www.stecindia.co.in JIWINS

Hamilton Beach ® C

Delhi Office : 4602, Deputy Ganj, Sadar Bazar, Delhi - 110 006, India.

Phone : 011 - 3293 6432 / 2363 1069 / 93122 16432 Fax : 011 - 2363 1069

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Bar / Preparation Equipment

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®

Atlantic Chef

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June 1-15, 2013

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Table Mats for Restaurants TO GET THEM CUSTOMIZED with Name, Logo, Address and Messages of Your Restaurant.

Exclusive Designs can also be created using Photographs or artwork from your side to suit the Interiors and Theme of Your Restaurant. You can have look at our latest designs by visiting:

Taurus Table Mats are specially made for use in Restaurants. They withstand the heavy usage as well as rough handling encountered in a typical restaurant, retaining the shape and vibrant colors through their long life!

ASK FOR A

FREE SAMPLE Taurus Table Mats 4 Mallikarjuna Temple Street, Basavanagudi Bangalore 560 004

Phone: 080 4150 5393 Mobile: 0 97421 96770 Email: info@taurustablemats.com Website: www.taurustablemats.com

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ChocoMan Two Cute

To Advertise in

Business Avenues Please Contact: ■

Mumbai: Rajan Nair - 09821076065 ■

■ ■

Delhi Associate : Manoj - 09818073441

Chennai & Hyderabad : Shukla : 09849297724 ■

Bangalore: Sreejit : 08867574257

■

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Delhi: Pranshu - 09810841431

www.expresshospitality.com

Kolkata: P Basu - 09830130965

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Jogani Industrial Complex, Bldg no 9, 2nd floor, Unit no. 221,V.N.Purav marg, Chunabhatti (east), Mumbai - 400 022.

Ph: +91-22-65150452 ,65745564 e-mail : info@eurotechcorporation.in eurotechcorporation@hotmaill.com

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June 1-15, 2013

Express Hospitality Business Avenues mini

OES 6.06 COMBI STEAMER WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART STATE-OF-THE-ART GERMAN TECHONOLOGY.

mini space maxi power Most suitable for Catering, Hotels,Food Courts, Quick service restaurants, Bakers, Snack Bars, Caterers, Schools, Takeaways Store, Cash & Carry.

Cookery à la carte! Whether baking, roasting, grilling, steaming, stewing, blanching or poaching – we have the optimum solution that's right for any requirement in your kitchen.

Jogani Industrial Complex, Bldg no 9, 2nd floor, Unit no. 221,V.N.Purav marg, Chunabhatti (east), Mumbai - 400 022.

Ph: +91-22-65150452 ,65745564 e-mail : info@eurotechcorporation.in eurotechcorporation@hotmaill.com

Pizza Master is renowned for quality to build the best pizza stone hearth ovens in the world. Pizza Master bake pizzas to perfection. Used in restaurants, bars,hotels,bakeries,cafe convenience stores, petrol stations and food outlets

The stone ovens are perfect for • Outside Catering • Restaurant chain • Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) • Hotel and Catering • Petrol stations / Foodcourts • Cash & Carry / food retailers

June 1-15, 2013

www.expresshospitality.com

Jogani Industrial Complex, Bldg no 9, 2nd floor, Unit no. 221,V.N.Purav marg, Chunabhatti (east), Mumbai - 400 022.

Ph: +91-22-65150452 ,65745564 e-mail : info@eurotechcorporation.in eurotechcorporation@hotmaill.com

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39 & 40, Municipal Industrial Estate, Gandhi Nagar, Opp. Nehru Science Centre, Worli, Mumbai - 400 018 TF: +91-22-2496 8482, +91-22-2492 1998 Email: uniforms@uuindia.com www.uniformsunltd.co.in June 1-15, 2013

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MAXELL-PLAST (INDIA)

#3, Woodwarf, 5th Lane Walltax Road, Chennai- 600 079, Phone:+91-44-2529 3322, Telefax:+91-44-2539 0673 Mumbai Showroom : #G-90, Sarovadaya Nagar, 1st Panjarpole Lane, Mumbai – 400004. Ph : +91- 22 -2242 7778, Telefax: +91-22-2242 2442. Cell : + 91-9892721331. Email : maxellplastmum@rediffmail.com, Delhi Showroom : #4781/26, Deputy Gunj, Sadar Bazar, Delhi – 110006. Phone : +91-11-2352 4455 + 91-96506 06424. Email : maxellplastindiadel@hotmail.com

Website : www.maxellplastindia.com www. maxellplast.tradeindia.com maxellplastindia@hotmail.com

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June 1-15, 2013

Express Hospitality Business Avenues JAIVANTI COSMETICS HOSPiTALiTY REDEFinED SOAP SHAMPOO MOISTURISER SHOWER GEL DENTAL KIT SHAVING KIT COASTERS SHOWER CAP LAUNDRY BAG COMB PEN / PENCILS CHEF CAP

Manufacturer & Supplier of:

GUEST CARE AMENITIES

& many more

GUEST CARE PRODUCTS

HOTEL iT e MS

HYGiENE CAR E PRODUCTS

Regd Off : 14, Ganesh Chandra Avenue, Kolkata - 700 013 Ph : 033 - 22374811, 22159400, Telefax : 033 - 40017327 E-mail : jayantshah65@gmail.com

June 1-15, 2013

www.expresshospitality.com

Website : www.jaivanti.com

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To Advertise in

Business Avenues Please Contact:

■ Mumbai: Rajan Nair - 09821076065 ■ Delhi: Pranshu - 09810841431 ■ Delhi Associate : Manoj - 09818073441 ■ Chennai & Hyderabad : Shukla : 09849297724 ■ Bangalore: Sreejit : 08867574257 ■ Kolkata: P Basu - 09830130965 80

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www.expresshospitality.com

June 1-15, 2013

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New Showroom

Shop

Godown No. 17, T J Road, Near Sunder Tower, Sewree (W), Mumbai - 400 015 E-mail: jantasteel2008@gmail.com, info@janatasteel.com, www.jantasteel.com Ph.: +91-022-2411 1987/8/9, Sunday Closed.

69,1st Galli Kirtikar Market Dr D Silva Rd., Dadar (W), Mumbai - 400 020 Ph.: +91-022-2436 0311/ 21/ 41 E-mail: jantasteel2008@gmail.com, info@janatasteel.com, www.jantasteel.com

June 1-15, 2013

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s at 94 it u Vis o. A19 N l 3 l Sta HW-1 ariu at F m galbu u n e M B

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Consultants & Service Provider of– Coffee & Fast Food Equipments

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Deals in:

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n Lemo Lavender

Clonge

ne Ja s m i Rose CK Poison France

Green Apple

Internat atio ional

d uire Req alers De B-54, NARAINA INDL. AREA PH-II NEW DELHI-110028 INDIA TEL.: +91-11-45623650 M.:+91-9810086516, 9717294779 Email: siddharthimpex59@yahoo.in www.siddharthimpex.in

Restaurant / Banquet Linen

June 1-15, 2013

Napkins Neprons Matt Runner Coasters Underlay Overlay / Nepron Bread Cover Waiter Cloth Wiping Cloth Readymade Frill / Skirting Banquet Linen

www.expresshospitality.com

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Hotel Raddison Noor Mahal.

Karnal Luxary Vasundhara Sarovar Premiere Hotel. Cochin Clarks City Mark Hotel.

Gurgaon

Kolkata Drive Inn 24 Motel.

Moradabad Uppal Orchids Hotel.

Faridabad Hotel Laxmi Palace.

Mussoorie

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Class act

WEEKEND

F

SCENE AND HEARD

Marcellus Baptista

or most people it was their first glimpse of The Classroom from the famed Harvard Business School. It was the launch of world-renowned surgeon Dr. Rakesh Sinha’s ‘Success Profiles: The Anatomy of Success’ DVD of his interview

by Jack Canfield of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ fame at The Classroom at Taj Lands End. The success story continued with special guests Kunal Ganjawala, Anita Dongre, Arpinder Singh, D Sivanandan, Purab Kohli, R Madhavan, Riyaaz Amlani, Dr. Sanjay Oak, Dr. Tehemton Udwadia, Yukta Mookhey and Bhagyashree sharing their success tales.

Cocktails and dinner followed this stimulating success session.

And the talk veered towards Rakesh Sinha’s scientific approach to success, drawn from his surgical experiences in life-and-death situations.

R Madhavan, Manju Sinha, Bhagyashree and Rakesh Sinha at The Classroom at Taj Lands End

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MUMBAI’S HOTELS? A PEEK INTO THE PARTY CIRCUIT AND EVENTS IN THE CITY...

New and improved

Eat treat he Spanish restaurant Poco Loco was abuzz with a mouth-watering food-tasting session with restaurateur Saurabh Shroff and wife Sonal Bhandarkar in attendance along with chef Amey. Guests felt at home at this comfy restaurant as they sipped red and white wine sangria and other coolers and then sat down for a special three-course meal comprising salads, a shot of gazpacho soup with a puri on the top, tapas selection of potato, mushroom, prawn and chicken and a main course selection that included the seafood special paella marinera. And everyone promised to come back for seconds.

High five he concept-celebrity ‘F in Focus’ at F Lounge.Diner.Bar has been growing in popularity. The fifth edition featuring Pria Kataaria Puri was a great hit that celebrated the designer’s 16 glorious years in the fashion industry. Showcased were her exquisite ensembles from each of her 16 collections over the years. Meanwhile, Bellini, Black Dog and other spirits were flowing and doing the rounds was the designer’s signature favourite pan-seared fish in tequila lime glaze.

Enjoying the experience was guest of honour ‘Shantaram’ author Gregory David Roberts who praised Pria’s work, and other guests like Yukta Mookhey, Diandra Soares, Sucheta Sharma, Shruti Agrawal, Monikangana Dutta, Alesia Raut, Candice Pinto, Shonal Rawal, Tanaz Doshi, Poonam Soni, Dipannita Sharma, Deepti Gujral, Nargis Bagheri, Nachiket Barve, Neeta Lulla, Nisha Jhaveri, Neha Bhasin, Shaheen and Roshan Abbas.

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Ali Reza, Sunil Prabhu and Mohammad Fasih at the re-launch of Sheesha Sky Lounge einvention is the name of the game. And so Sheesha Sky Lounge spruced itself up for a grand re-launch party, hosted by Mohammad Fasih and Ali Reza. Mayor Sunil Prabhu, Abu Azmi, Raj Kumar Santoshi, Anil Sharma, Ramji Gulati, Sofi Khan, Aziz Zee, Mumait Khan, Shakir Shaikh, Rehan Shah, Manali Jagtap, Harmeet Singh, Sonia Birje and Sandhya Mamik rambled across the spacious restaurant and bar and soaked in the slick and chic décor and the open kitchen dishing out some sizzling stuff. There was a distinct buzz at the bar while the DJ spun some catchy music, the sound of which blended with the cocktail chatter.

R

Sonal Bhandarkar and Saurabh Shroff at the food-tasting dinner at Poco Loco

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Gregory David Roberts, Pria Kataaria Puri and Sumit Puri at the 'F in Focus' at F bar June 1-15, 2013

WEEKEND E V E N T S

New introduction

Identifying the best

Accor Hotels India was recognised as one of 'India's Best Companies for Rewards and Recognition' in the 2013 all India study conducted by the Great Place to Work Institute in association with Edenred

L-R: K Ramakrishnan, president- marketing, Cafe Coffee Day and actor Shraddha Kapoor at the launch of CCD's new Crunchy Frappe at its Delhi outlet in Connaught Place

Contemporary twist

Fashion extravaganza

L-R: Atul Lall, general manager, Fairmont Jaipur; Neeta Lulla with Sameera Reddy at the grand finale of Rajasthan Fashion Week at Fairmont Jaipur

R-L: Gndjon Bjarnason; Eva Dogg Atladottir and Gaurav Khanna at the calligraphy art exhibition by Poosapati Parameshwar Raju held at Art Spice Gallery at the Metropolitan Hotel & Spa

Level of enthusiasm

New addition

N N Vohra, governor of Jammu & Kashmir; Jyotsna Suri, chairperson and MD, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group and VP, FICCI, awarding the Shikarathon winners in Srinagar June 1-15, 2013

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group signed an agreement to manage Mandarin Oriental Bosphorus, Istanbul which is scheduled to open in 2016

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WEEKEND E V E N T S

Team work

Dream venture

Rahi Vagani and Ankit at the opening of luxury adventure retreat Monteria in Khalapur, Panvel

Relais & Châteaux’s Grands Chefs gathered at Old Billingsgate in London to create the annual Dîner des Grands Chefs

Celebratory toast

Remarkable milestone

Sanjay Khullar, vice chairman, Seasons Group with JJ and TJ Vallaya at the silver jubilee celebrations of Season's Group at Chattarpur Farms, New Delhi

Karen Anand and Martin Wuethrich, general manager, Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at the celebration of its global roll-out of premium wine programme with 24 hour 'Toast around the world'

Creating a niche

Flying steps

Constance Hotels and Resorts hosted a road show in Mumbai and Delhi wherein travel agents from both the cities interacted with Dyanna Pudaruth, sales manager- India Market, Constance Hotels & Resorts and Renato Chizzola, general manager, Constance Halaveli Resort, Maldives

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EXPRESS HOSPITALITY

Tower Club at Lebua in partnership with European Red Bull, showcased the first ever performance of the 'Flying Steps' world champion breakdance team from Europe at the alfresco restaurant Sirocco in Bangkok

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June 1-15, 2013

REGD.WITH RNI NO.MAHENG/2005/21391, REGD.NO.MH/MR/SOUTH-44/2013-15,PUBLISHED ON 2ND & 17TH EVERY FORTNIGHT, POSTED ON 3,4,5 & 18,19,20 OF EVERY FORTNIGHT POSTED AT IND.EXP.PSO.

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