South Strategy

At leisure at The Leela

Perched strategically atop a cliff facing the Arabian Sea, The Leela Kempinski Kovalam has positioned itself similarly in the region's leisure market. Biswajit Chakraborty, its GM, speaks about its strategies for countering the downturn. By Gayatri Vijaykumar

With a month to date occupancy of 72 per cent as against the industry average of 45 per cent in Kovalam, The Leela Kempinski Kovalam has sailed through the first quarter of 2009. "We have aggressively marketed our summer and monsoon packages through direct sales, travel agents and the PR in domestic source markets. This led to a 40 per cent jump in the sale of packages as compared to last year for the same period," says Biswajit Chakraborty, the property's GM. He adds that the hotel has also pursued the conference market which, though less than last year, produced almost 800 room nights for May alone.

Despite the current economic scenario, the domestic market for leisure has performed well. "The domestic market has improved and performed very well for us - both in the main block and the high profile Club block," says Chakraborty adding that the overseas FITs have also remained steady. "In fact there has been an increase in people from Europe coming down for ayurvedic treatments," he exclaims.

The Leela Kovalam way

Cost factors remain crucial in ensuring the smooth running of any organisation. According to Chakraborty, the most critical decisions that affect purchase are economies of scale combined with availability, sustained supply and meeting quality standards.

Rather than cutting down on service and quality in order to cut costs, wastage in terms of energy, raw materials, etc are curtailed at the Leela. "There is no cost control in providing quality and 'Leela standards' to guests. There is a huge amount allocated every year to repair and maintenance ensuring the product remains cutting edge," explains Chakraborty.

The hotel has enhanced market penetration through the web, direct sales and PR efforts in both domestic and international markets. According to him, the major revenue comes from rooms - the ratio to F&B being 60:40.

Ayurveda is gaining increasing popularity worldwide, and this has been leveraged at the hotel's signature spa called The Divya. "Our spa has already made its mark worldwide and actually is pitched internationally to bring in FIT business for the hotel year round. The spa does an average of 40 treatments a day with eight rooms, a yoga/meditation centre and a high-end beauty salon," he says.

MICE is an important factor for The Leela Kempinski Kovalam, and with its 11,000 sq ft pillarless convention centre and several conference halls, beach venues and other areas for theme dinners, the property is quite popular among the MICE market. Chakraborty adds that the segment accounts for almost 25-40 per cent on year-round revenues both in F&B and rooms. "We have a very structured MICE game plan across the group whereby our sales and marketing teams in source markets provide solutions to the conference market in terms of an exclusive bouquet of hotels for each segment of conferences, high-end as well as larger conventions," he says.

While most companies resort to downsizing staff during recessionary times, Leela's HR mantra is to look after its staff even more during tough times. "We have actually stepped up welfare measures and training and there is a huge connect with staff who in turn go all out to look after our guests - which is the greatest marketing strategy," he says. On a more practical note he adds that the location and expanse of The Leela requires intense maintenance, landscaping, security, and engineering efforts and hence a requirement of manpower.

The way forward

Kovalam, and for that matter, Kerala, has gained immense popularity over the past few years primarily due to the concerted efforts of both the public and private sectors. Chakraborty agrees and adds, "We work very closely with the tourism department and the tourism ministry in Kerala - and in my opinion the Kerala tourism department has done a fantastic job in marketing the destination internationally - which has led to high visibility in the last five to six years."

Taxes levied by the government have been a constant source of debate and, according to him, the Leela has been requesting the government for relief on areas such as luxury tax, excise, sales tax and other benefits which would help the industry as well as bring in tourists.

Chakraborty feels that the way ahead is simple. What is required is a focussed and common objective between the industry - hospitality as well as travel, the ministry of tourism, the state governments, etc. "Unless we are all on the same page to boost tourism numbers into India (which we all know is a huge opportunity area ) - we will be left behind and that would be unfortunate," he concludes.