Your family has a presence in Ayodhya. What prompted you to tie up with the best hotel chain in the world – Indian Hotels?
Shilpa Shorewala Jhunjhunwala: IHCL understands the needs of the Indian traveller. They will understand the spirituality of Ayodhya and the religious feeling of Ayodhya; it is not just a commercial thing for them, they understand how the people want to feel over there. And being from Ayodhya, I thought this was the best brand that could understand the sentiments of Ayodhya.
This is stage one of Indian Hotels expanding their operations in Ayodhya. Is this just the first step and a new beginning for Indian Hotels and the Taj brand in Ayodhya?
Puneet Chhatwal: Yes, we did sign a Vivanta and a Ginger earlier. The construction is yet to commence on the project that we have signed with the Vyapar Group, headed by Shilpa. The construction is already underway; so up to the third floor, we have already built. This will be the first one to open, and we are still looking for an ideal fit for the Taj brand because Taj being the crown jewel of India, we cannot just do any property. Ideally, we would like to go to Ayodhya with the Taj Palace positioning because just as I said, not just for India, it is like a temple of hospitality for the world. So, all in all, yes, we are very excited and I do not think we should understate that through all of our brands, we are present in 66 spiritual locations in India, of which more than 45 destinations are covered. We are getting very close to 50 already and with multiple brands. So, if you look at the start of our journey at Pilibhit House in Haridwar to Anand Kashi again on the Ganges to Taj Rishikesh, I think we are at the forefront of getting into these kinds of destinations with all our possible brands.
How big do you think religious tourism could be for Indian Hotels? Do you think religious tourism now could be a significant part of IHCL’s portfolio?
It already is. It is a great opportunity for India because as we may be a young country, but we have the oldest history. I think spirituality will be a key differentiator for the generations to come and nobody has that kind of spiritual history like we have. This is a very important turning point in India’s history because of the importance and the excitement and because of bringing back something which people have waited for 500 years. This will start a new kind of demand for spiritual sectors. It is crisis-resistant, and the only time it suffered was when we had COVID-19 and there was a lockdown. Otherwise, spiritual destinations are always very strong in demand and they will also become conference destinations. So, it will be a mixture that when you are teaching management. when you are teaching lessons from history, there will be no better place to do it. You can combine it with the spiritual quotient that is needed for organisations to thrive over the longer term.
How much investment would the Vyapar Group be doing in this hotel project? Is this the first of many which could come from the Vyapar Group going forward and are you looking at more tie-ups with the Taj Hotel?
Shilpa Shorewala Jhunjhunwala: Definitely, we are looking out for more tie-ups with Taj Hotel. This will be one of the first ones and we want to do others with them.
You mentioned that spiritual tourism is already part of Taj’s portfolio and it will increasingly grow. But how do you think this will contribute to the overall kitty of India’s tourism sector per se? There are a lot of initiatives Indian Hotels has taken in the past which, in a sense, has changed the needle for the Indian tourism sector. You became the leader and then everybody started following in you footsteps. Three years ago you came on air and you said that for the hospitality industry, not acche din, bahut acche din aane waale hain and now every hotel industry, both local and global, is expanding.
Puneet Chhatwal: It is like really the beginning and a lot of better days, even than what we see today are yet to come because the demand is very strong and the excitement is there. A lot of Indian diasporas would be bringing their families to come and visit such historic and spiritual sites. A lot of people would be very eager to come and see such destinations, not just today, but for several years, decades or a century to come.
We are adding a 100-room block to the Taj Ganges in Banaras. We increased, to the extent possible, the size of Nadessa Palace. But now, in the lawns, we will be trying to add luxury-tented accommodation because the palace is a heritage building; you cannot extend that. There is a lot of strong demand and also it is getting the aid from the initiatives that the government has undertaken. If you go to Kashi Vishwanath Temple today versus five, seven, eight, ten years ago, it is a very different place. The whole access, the whole surroundings and also getting to the core of the temple, is very different than when I first visited that destination. Same is in Ayodhya. All that investment that is going on will encourage a lot of people to come visit, besides the spiritual needs. So, all these are great initiatives are going to support the hospitality sector, the tourism sector and in turn, tourism and hospitality will contribute towards the GDP growth and in terms of creating direct and indirect jobs like no other sector is capable of doing.
Last three years, we constantly used the word revenge travel to understand the uptick of Indian hotels and how things are moving for them. Then we started using the words of millennial travel, live only once, and how they in a sense were going out for staycations. Now looks like whenever we meet for a quarterly update, I will have to ask you a question on spiritual tourism.
Puneet Chhatwal: Yes, I think so, that will be nice. Words like revenge and tourism do not go together. Words like experience, spirituality, excursions, and exploratory travels resonate well with me and we are very-very pleased, especially today because of the collaboration with Shilpa, we are getting so close to the Ram temple in the new hotel. Hopefully, many more such hotels will come up and we need partners like her to make it happen. Nobody can do such a job on their own. So, we need good partners and we are very proud to have had this opportunity to do it on such an auspicious day.
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