- Chalet expects high - single to low - double - digit revenue growth.
- Foreign travelers canceled bookings worth $6.3 million.
- Domestic leisure travel remains strong.
The recovery comes even as foreign tourist cancellations linked to the Gulf war continue to weigh on the sector, according to Reuters. Across the world, the ongoing conflict reshaped travel plans, with many travelers shifting toward destinations closer to home rather than risking disrupted routes and rising costs.
“Foreign travelers canceled bookings worth around $6.3 million between March and April, though arrivals started to pick up again,” Shwetank Singh, Chalet CEO and Managing Director told Reuters.
Singh said domestic leisure travel looked strong and they were doing fairly well there.
He added that some destination weddings originally planned for West Asia shifted to India, giving an unexpected lift to the domestic hospitality sector.
Local tourism also received a boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to avoid unnecessary foreign travel and consider holidaying within the country instead, partly to help curb foreign exchange outflows.
India Ratings and Research expects the country’s hotel demand and supply to grow 10 to 15 percent in the current fiscal year, with leisure travel likely to remain more resilient than corporate travel, which could weaken further due to oil-driven cost pressures, the agency said in a note.
This would mark a recovery from the previous quarter, when core revenue growth slowed to 6 percent from 23 percent in the October to December period after the Iran war disrupted travel and triggered widespread cancellations.
Corporate demand, on the other hand, came under more pressure. Companies pulled back on travel and broader spending as oil, freight and insurance costs rose due to the conflict. To adapt, Chalet started offering rooms at rates more accessible to corporate clients who were previously priced out of its properties.
Singh said the company avoided publicly cutting room rates, opting instead for more targeted pricing adjustments.
Separately, Chalet and Mindspace Business Parks REIT are developing a Ritz-Carlton hotel project in Hyderabad with an estimated investment of up to $107.8 million.
