Hotel chains woo Indian travellers with foreign trip packages

With Indian air traffic to foreign destinations rising steadily, major hotel chains have started wooing leisure and business travellers with a variety of family entertainment and conference packages.
Mega chains like the Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which includes global brands like Sheraton, have been holding roadshows at several Indian cities to attract customers to their properties in Far East destinations like Macao.
Travel agents have also started promoting their MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourism packages, apart from attracting large groups of holiday and leisure travellers from the country.
"India is among our top 10 key markets and we are here specially to target the holiday and leisure travellers, apart from the business travellers," said Ruth Boston, General Manager (Sales & Marketing) of Sheraton Macao, adding that the Indian market was poised for high growth over next few years.

Her group has also tied up with Jet Airways for their holiday packages under JetEscapes and Air India to get Indian travellers from Hong Kong to Macao on ferry, she said.
Elaborating on the packages, Boston said, "We have been very successful with 'Dreamworks Experience' during the past summer." Dreamworks themes include famous cartoon characters from series like the Shrek, Madagaskar and Kung Fu Panda.

"This innovative offering is bringing Macao's family entertainment to a new level where Indian families can share unforgettable experiences this winter," she said. Apart from daily parades by these cartoon characters, family suites have been designed and decorated with them.

On the MICE front, Boston said the Sheraton Macao was the "largest Starwood property" with 3,896 rooms which had an average of 96 per cent occupancy through the past few years.
There are also grand ball rooms which could accommodate over 5,000 people at one time, she added.