Tag Archives: Clarks Safari

Mr. Prakash Bedi, Vice President of Clarks Safari The budget sounded optimistic and growth-oriented. The doubling of FDI to 596 billion US dollars, is an encouraging sign for the whole economy. The main push in this interim budget is boosting tourism at the state level. The announcement of interest-free loans to the state for maintaining iconic tourist centers will witness more footfalls. We always believed that India needs more tourist spots, and monuments, to be branded and marketed. This budget addressed this need. The government showed will towards further developing rail and air infrastructure. Opening of 517 new routes carrying 1.3 crore passengers boosted domestic travel, and seeing the surge in demand the Indian carriers have placed orders for 1000 new aircraft. The focus on tourism is back, also with the opening of Ram Mandir, spiritual tourism is back in focus. Recently members of the Karak Clan from South Korea visited the temple and paid tributes to Lord Rama. This is a positive signal, in the coming days we can witness more international tourists from South East Asia visiting India for spiritual purposes. The surge of the Indian middle class will further boost domestic tourism.

Mr. Prakash Bedi, Vice President, Clarks Safari  India is blessed with a varied landscape and architectural marvels, most travelers visit India to experience heritage or spiritual tourism apart from being a favorite destination for leisure and business travel. The hospitality sector is a billion-dollar industry and gives employment to 137 billion individuals. Last year’s budget was promising, with the announcement of opening up 220 airports by 2025, the allotment of 2.4 lakh crores to Indian railways capital expenditure, and increasing coastal shipping using India’s eastern and western shipping lines, boosting the tourism sector. With the 2024-2025 budget in the pipeline, there are a lot of expectations within the industry. The sector only has 1,90,000 branded rooms which is significantly lower than the other Asian counterparts. China has nine times more branded rooms than us. The industry needs more foreign investments and big chains setting up properties in India. Too much of licenses are acting as dampeners, it is essential to have one clearance window, to support ease of doing business and to encourage new players to enter the sector. This will lead to the expansion of the hotel industry and more inflow of international tourists. For long, the industry has been struggling to get industry status, rationalize taxes, and easier loan conditions for small and medium properties. We are hoping this budget will address a few of those issues. It is high time the indirect taxes especially the goods and services taxes need to be standardized as per global standards. All across the globe the GST charged is 12%, whereas in India we charge 18% GST, this leads to the driving of the room tariffs. This will make India globally …

The Indian hotel industry anticipates a robust fiscal year in 2024, with double-digit revenue growth, according to ICRA. The growth will be attributed to a combination of domestic and international factors, especially in the latter half of the fiscal year. Premium hotels in India are forecasted to achieve occupancy rates of around 70–72%, marking a significant recovery. Average room rates for these hotels are projected to be in the range of Rs. 6,000–6,200, maintaining a 20–25% discount relative to the FY2008 peak. Despite healthy occupancy, slight margin dips are anticipated in FY2024 due to extensive renovation and maintenance activities undertaken by hotels, surpassing pre-COVID levels. Mr. Prakash Bedi, Vice President of Clarks Safari shares key insights on 2024 hospitality trends., He believes the key metro cities will again lead to an increase in tourism due to MICE, business travellers, etc. The majority of the revenue in the tourism sector will flow from domestic travellers, but international travel will also pick up. At the same time, experiential travel and tier-2 cities will also witness a tourist surge due to infrastructural development. Technology will play a bigger role, and even boutique hotels will strengthen their IT infrastructure, to generate more footfalls. He further adds, “Tourists are becoming more aware of their preferences and choices, adventure tourism will witness a surge. The existing national parks infrastructure will be improved and a few new parks might open up. Wildlife tourism will attract more domestic and international tourists. With the opening of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, spiritual tourism will see a boost.  Also, sustainability will no longer remain a PR activity. The way climate concerns are being raised, and sustainable efforts are taken by the …

Clarks Safari celebrated Christmas with girls of Aashray Care Home on 15th December 2022. This year apart from decorating the properties, announcing special packages for the guests, conducting festivities for the guests, the brand decided to do something different. Therefore, organized Christmas festivities with female children from humble backgrounds. Apart from Aashray Care Home, where orphan girls are placed, the group will celebrate Christmas with many other orphanages across India. They got phenomenal response for this initiative, and have decided to incorporate this as a mandatory CSR activity.   The team conducted 2 day festivities in which games were organized, personality grooming classes were conducted, easy life hacks and survival techniques for young girls. More than 100 plus girls participated in the festivities. The brand distributed gifts, prizes at the end of the event. Experts from the field of grooming and personality development gave workshops on maintaining hygiene, improving day to day communication, and meditation. A gynecologist was also present at Aashray Care Home, to address gynecological issues of the females. There were further sessions around survival techniques, strengthening mind, boosting confidence, etc.  Mr.Prakash Bedi, Vice President, Clarks Safari shares, “As a brand we are conscious of our social responsibilities and celebrating Christmas with Aashray Care girls is a step towards it. Also the management has decided to sponsor the education of twenty girls from the care center. These festivities were aimed towards making these girl children independent and more confident. Through workshops we taught them some of the easy hacks, which they can implement in their regular life. We are getting phenomenal response and are planning to conduct many more such events in the future.” Clarks Safari under the aegis …