With three major deluxe properties launched in half a decade, a fourth to come onstream in a year, an aggressive expansion of its midsize and heritage brands, and the establishment of formidable restaurant brands, the 50-strong ITC Hotels Ltd is clearly a group with big ambitions in the hospitality front. Nakul Anand, its newly crowned managing director, has literally grown with the company and had a ringside view of the industry through its vicissitudes. Now, with a fillip in infrastructure and government support, the industry is poised for the next step, he tells Reshmi R Dasgupta :

What do you see as your immediate task at the helm of ITC Hotels ?

Well, I have been given a tremendously well established product, so it will be a challenge to even live up to my predecessor, SSH Rehman. In the last 3-4 years, we have added the ITC Kakatiya Sheraton, ITC Grand Maratha in Mumbai, ITC Sonar Bangla in Kolkata and will soon have the ITC Grand Central also in Mumbai, not to mention the debut of ITC One in the major properties.

We have built up formidable brands in cuisine too – Dum Pukht, Bukhara, Peshawri, Dakshin and now Pan-Asian. I’d like to first consolidate before embarking on our second phase of growth. Of course, it is too early to say in what direction we shall go. We in the hotel industry are still largely feeding off the demand and supply figures thrown up by the last boom of 1995. But that phase is about to come to an end and we shall have to look for the next demand-supply configuration.

How will you decide on future growth priorities ?

So far our hotels in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai have done very well indeed. Occupancy has grown by 50%. In fact, even though in the aftermath of the bomb blasts on Monday we lost rooms, occupancy began to rise from the very next day. But we shall have to see the growth of cities and centres in different states before we decide where to look next. We have noticed, for instance, how mid-sized hotels have generally done better in the south. So we are talking a whole new scenario now in India.

What has changed in India in the past decade ?

Well, the profile of the tourist is changing, for one, especially that of the domestic tourist, and now there is the added attraction of the NRI who comes to India frequently. There is also a rise in what can broadly be called cultural tourism which has led to some places becoming important – like Tirupati, Shirdi, Nashik, Madurai, etc. We, in fact, realised the potential of these towns almost by chance. But our two hotels in Tirupati and Madurai under our mid-size brand Fortune Park will give us a first hand idea of the depth of that market. And of course there is heritage tourism, which we have taken a great interest in via our WelcomHeritage brand.

Some think that the real boom is in the budget segment. Is ITC Hotels thinking along those lines ?

Yes, there is definitely a rise in the number of tourists who are looking for rooms in the Rs800-1000 range. At the moment Fortune Park is the closest we come to addressing that segment.

How do you see the tourism industry doing in the next few years ?

Actually, in terms of infrastructure and government help, we have never had it so good. Ranging from the long term benefits of the golden quadrilateral highway project to the very welcome concessions in the 2003-04 budget and the exim policy, we have very little to carp about. In fact, the only grouse that the industry may still have is the issue of aviation turbine fuel, which makes travel so expensive.

Though some infrastructure problems are still to be resolved, on the whole the outlook is exciting for the tourism industry. I believe in the "islands of excellence" idea, to target specific centres for the tourist eyeing India as a destination. In that context, India’s big advantage has always been cultural tourism. India is so huge that we cannot cast our net too wide. We can’t possibly focus on everything or else we will waste energy and not get the requisite result.