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Leela to build
hotels in Nepal
T
Prime Minister of Nepal Sushil Koirala witnesses the
agreement signing and exchange ceremony between
Vivek Nair (left), Chairman, The Leela Palaces, Hotels
and Resorts and Amrit Shakya (right), Chairman, Summit Group, to establish four hotels in Nepal.
Mumbai, Delhi-NCR to
open 6800 hotel rooms
D
elhi-NCR and Mumbai are likely to
witness significant increase in sup
ply of hotel rooms with addition of
nearly 6,800 keys by the end of 2015, according to a report by realty consultant
Cushman & Wakefield.
So far this year, about 1,000 rooms have
been added in these two major hospitality
markets.
“Two prime markets in India, DelhiNCR and Mumbai are expected to see an
addition of 6,798 rooms by the end of
2015,” Cushman & Wakefield said in a
statement. During 2014, Delhi-NCR and
Mumbai hospitality markets have shown
a downward trend in Average Occupancy
Rate (AOR) whilst the Average Daily Rate
(ADR) in both cities have recorded an increase of two per cent. Occupancy level in
Mumbai dropped to 64.2pc in 2014 from
66.4pc and in Delhi-NCR to 49.4pc from
54pc. “Despite hopeful economic outlook
on the table, supply-side growth may stifle
gains in hotel performance in the shortterm,” it said.
The consultant released its report “Hotel Views” on year-end updates and forecast on the hotel markets across Asia and
Australia covering over 18 gateway cities
and prime destinations. “Both Mumbai
and NCR-Delhi are feeling the impact of
supply-side growth that has outpaced the
generation of demand. Over 11,000 keys
and 16,000 keys are planned to enter the
market between 2014 and 2018 for Mumbai
and NCR Delhi respectively, significantly
adding to rooms’ inventory and placing
pressure on potential gains in occupancy
and ADR,” C&W said.
While the outlook for demand growth
remains positive given new policy initiatives undertaken by the Union government
and the development of select demand generators such as the Reliance Convention
Centre in Mumbai (slated to open in 2017),
the consultant said that these are expected
to prop demand in the medium term and
challenges remain in the short-term.
C&W Director, Hospitality India, PR
Srinivas said: “The stability of the global
market along with the strength of the Indian rupee would be critical in assuring a
healthier performance by these two gateway markets of India.”
With a stable government at the centre
actively promoting India as a destination,
these two markets will be the likely beneficiaries of the expected traffic to India,
he added. “The Average RevPAR (revenue
per available room) in both these cities, will
be affected by the addition of rooms with
Mumbai just about maintaining it at Rs
4,000 (approx) and Delhi NCR declining to
Rs 3,400 (approx),” Srinivas said.
Co-founder tries
to save SpiceJet
T
he entrepreneur be
hind a high-profile
effort to rescue Indian carrier SpiceJet has
asked for more time to
finalise funding plans, a government official with direct
knowledge of the matter has
revealed. Ajay Singh, who
helped set up the low-cost
airline in 2005, had been
expected to submit a plan .
The official said Singh had
sought two to three more
weeks to finalise the plan.
Singh is in talks with USbased private equity investors to lead a turnaround of
SpiceJet. The government official said funding discussions were taking longer
than expected due to the
Christmas
holidays.
SpiceJet, India’s second-largest budget carrier and fourth
overall in November, has
been struggling for months.
Last week, it was briefly
forced to ground its fleet af-
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Leisure, Travel and Holidays
Employment & NRI Times
he Leela Palaces,
Hotels and Resorts,
India’s premier
luxury hospitality brand
and Summit Group of
Nepal have signed a MoU
in the presence of Prime
Minister of Nepal Sushil
Koirala to collaborate on
the first of four hotels, to be
established across Nepal,
marking a new era of partnership in tourism between
India and Nepal. The Leela
Kathmandu, the first of the
series, a five -star deluxe
hotel to be built in the heart
of Kathmandu, is expected
to be completed within 36
months. At the signing ceremony, Prime Minister
Koirala welcomed the entry
of The Leela and urged the
group to establish hotels in
other parts of Nepal. Both
Prime Minister Koirala and
his Indian counterpart,
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, have shown serious
intent in developing their
tourism across the member
nations of SAARC.
○
ter suppliers refused to refuel planes. Indian carriers,
most of whom are loss-making, have struggled with high
operating costs, including
fuel, and fierce competition
that has limited fare increases. SpiceJet has reported five consecutive quarters of losses and owes hundreds of millions of dollars
to creditors, including airport operators. A second
government official said
SpiceJet owed about Rs 14
billion ($221m). SpiceJet’s
majority owner, billionaire
Kalanithi Maran’s Sun
Group, has said it cannot afford a bail out after sinking
$400 million into the airline
since buying it in 2010.
Singh, who holds roughly
five per cent of SpiceJet, is
betting on lower oil prices
and an expected acceleration
in economic growth to help
his turnaround effort for the
airline.
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Friday
December 26, 2014 January 1, 2015
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Muscat Palm Mall to create 2500 jobs
T
contribution to the GDP of
the Sultanate stood at 2.6pc
and the indirect contribution
hit more than six per cent.
She explained that this percentage will increase during
the upcoming period and
will match other economic
sectors.
Mahmoud Al Jarwani,
chairman of Tamani Global
company said: “This one-ofa-kind project will reduce
the pressure on the commercial area in Muscat. It will
provide between 2,000 2,500 direct jobs at the mall
and in hotels, in addition to
thousands of other indirect
jobs. The project will contribute towards providing a
unique and enjoyable experience to the residents, as
well as visitors. Palm Mall is
expected to contribute to the
national economy through
capital circulation.”
he foundation stone
for the OMR90 mil
lion Palm Mall
Project Muscat was laid under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin
Tariq Al Said at Mabela in
Seeb. The 100pc Omani investment inspired project by
Al Jarwani Group (AJG) and
Global Tamani is expected to
be ready in 24 to 30 months.
It will also include the
first snow village in the Sultanate (Snow Park) that will
be developed through Dutch
specialised companies as
well as a cinema complex of
12 screens multiplex with
4D cinemas managed by
Majid Al Futtaim Group,
along with a hotel and 70
serviced apartments connected and interconnected
with the main commercial
centre.
It will also contain a vast
spread of multi-cuisine dining and food courts, in addition to Oman Aquarium, the
first and largest of its kind
in the Sultanate that is designed by Amusement
Whitewater Global, one of
the leading Australian companies in this area. Maitha
bint Saif Al Mahrouqi,
undersecretary at the Ministry of Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman, pointed out
that the Pall Mall project was
important for the tourism
sector. It focuses on many
recreational aspects as it
contains a hotel and hotel
apartments. She affirmed
that the project will offer
many job opportunities and
the Omani companies will
benefit from it as they will
deal with suppliers and operators of the project.
Maitha further said that
the tourism sector’s direct
Marriott opens
second hotel in Kochi
Vistara to take off on Jan 9
K
ochi Marriott, a unit
of the international
luxury hotel chain
Marriott, opened on the Lulu
Mall campus in Kochi. The
274-room hotel is set up in
partnership with the Lulu
Group. Kerala Home Minister
Ramesh Chennithala declared
the hotel open at a function
attended by ministers, MLAs
and senior functionaries of
Marriott International and
Lulu Group. Marriott Kochi,
said to be the most luxurious
hotel in Kerala, has a rooftop
helipad, a presidential suite,
a vice-presidential suite and
25 suites. It also has eight conference halls.Marriott has
around 500 hotels and resorts
across 60 countries. Kochi
Marriott is the second
Marriott hotel in Kerala, after
Courtyard Marriott near the
Kochi airport.
T
That Palm Mall is located
in the most populous
wilayat of Seeb in the capital Muscat, which is easily
accessible as it is located on
the two main roads to the
west of the residential area
in Mabela, about 14 km
away from the Muscat International Airport. He added,
“The project is 100pc Omani
investment inspired by an
authentic Omani symbol of
a Palm, and it will feature the
largest theme park in the
Sultanate. It includes a number of early education and
entertainment centres for
different age groups. Al
Jarwani said that the total
cost of the project will be
OMR90 million. It will be
conducted in a single phase
covering all the components
and facilities, and is expected to be ready in 24 to
30 months.
ata-Singapore Air
lines joint venture
airline Vistara has
announced the launch of its
operations from Jan 9 with
flight from Delhi to Mumbai
and Ahmedabad. The fullservice airline, which is a
51:49 joint venture between
Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, opened its bookings at
22:30 hours on Thursday.
With Delhi as its hub,
Vistara will initially offer
flights to Mumbai and
Ahmedabad. Vistara will operate 148-seater Airbus A320200 with 16 seats in business
class, 36 in premium
economy and 96 in economy.
Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO ,
Vistara, said: “I am very excited as this day is the culmination of many months of
hard work. “The activation of
distribution channels is our
first interface with our customer and with this, we embark on a journey to fulfil our
brand promise of seamless
travel experience. I would
like to especially thank our
partners for helping us put
our best foot forward and
most importantly the members of Vistara team for their
diligence and resolve all this
while.”
Once it takes off, Vistara
will be the third full service
carrier after state-run Air India and Jet . Vistara’s technology partners — Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS),
Wipro and Amadeus — will
be responsible for its customer support system and IT
services. Wipro will manage
the Vistara Customer Service
Centre. Tata Sons had announced forming a joint venture with Singapore Airlines
in September 2013 to set up
a full service airline, a year
after the then Manmohan
Singh government allowed
investment by foreign airlines in the domestic carriers. The airline had applied
to the DGCA for the permit
in April and had planned to
launch services by Sept,
which has got delayed
ered a medical-tourism
“sweet spot,” with decades
of solid economic growth
creating high-quality medical systems that remain competitively priced.
US-based industry resource Patients Beyond Borders estimates the world market is expanding by 25pc per
year — it reached $55 billion
with 11 million medical tourists in 2013. International
medical tourism began to
gain ground in the 1980s as
Latin American countries
such as Costa Rica and Bra-
zil offered relatively cheap
dental, cosmetic and other
procedures to US and European patients driven south by
high costs. But the onetime
niche market has developed
into a multi-billion-dollar industry as developing-world
health systems improve, global aviation links spread, and
the Internet broadens patients’ horizons.
Procedures vary widely
from fertility treatments in
Barbados, to cosmetic surgery in Brazil, heart and eye
operations in Malaysia, and
gender-reassignment in
Thailand. The sector benefits from a “perfect storm of
an ageing global population,
rising affluence and greater
choice in quality hospitals,”
said Josef Woodman, CEO of
Patients Beyond Borders.
“This is particularly true
in Asia, where disparities in
quality of care are driving
millions of patients to countries such as India, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea,
Taiwan in search of medical
treatment not yet available
in their homelands.”
Vistara CEO Phee Teik Yeoh.
Medical tourism booms in Asia
P
atients come from
both rich and poor
nations, the former
driven by high costs at
home, and the latter seeking
better-quality care.
Increasingly, major Asian
players like India, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand are
aggressively promoting treatments at up to 80pc savings
compared with developed
nations, with some companies arranging package trips
that combine a nose job with
a little beach time. Southeast
Asia, in particular, is consid-
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