Newstrack

Citizen World Travel enters hospitality

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

Treasure Tours is planning to enter the hotel segment with a chain of properties specifically tailor-made for airline crews. The company which specialises in transporting airline crews and international tourists within the country, will own and operate mid-size budget hotels in proximity to city airports across the country. Iqbal Mulla, chairman and managing director, Citizen World Travel and MD, Treasure Tours said he plans to set up hotels in proximity to key gateway city airports across the country in order to offer integrated travel and stay packages to airline crews which could extend to his inbound tour groups as well.

Mulla, who has long been concentrating on the inbound tourism and airline crew transfer niche is in expansion and diversification mode, with integrated inbound tours on the anvil as well as domestic tours for the affluent segment. Foreseeing the issue of rising ARRs at Indian hotels, Mulla sees the diversification as a natural choice towards building a company that will integrate the travel and hospitality business. Mulla is looking at the mid-segment three to four star model with a 100-room inventory. He revealed that his airline clients in fact had evinced the need for such integration. While he has set no immediate time table for opening the hotels, he is looking at all key metros and will, in the immediate term, focus on airline crews only. Some of the airlines are actually flying short haul to avoid having their crew stay overnight. Hotels on the other hand have reduced the levels of inventory they release for airline crews. Generally, every international flight requires up to 12 hotel rooms with 8000 rooms in Mumbai and Delhi being occupied by airline crews on a weekly basis.