Incredibly overpriced India

TRAVEL: Room rates in gateway cities hit the roof, agents feel the heat.

If India does not mend its ways, smaller destinations like Tunisia, Reunion Island, Uzbekistan, and others will start pinching the European travellers that India gets. Or, these seem to be the feelers that the Indian operators got at the latest travel market show at TopResa in Deauville, France last month.

France is India's second largest market, and contributes about 28 per cent to India's total inbound figure. The India Tourism booth at TopResa was bland, and lacked life, compared to those by Sri Lanka, Mauritius and others, says an Indian tour operator who attended the show.

The real reason, he claims, is because at the moment India is highly overpriced. "There were no enquiries from new operators. Even the ones who have been selling India for a while have cut down on promoting India heavily," he says.

The culprit, they say are the high hotel rates in our gateway cities. Consider this: A luxury room in Delhi is selling for $350-450, whereas, a 3 night/4 days package in Tunisia or Reunion costs somewhere around $550. And, one can easily get a five-star in Bangkok for $80, in KL for $100 and in Colombo for $100.

Reservations at ITC Maurya Sheraton quoted a rate of $500 for a luxury room while a standard room was for $400. Some agents also allege that several five-star hotels upsell rooms.

"Hotels push upper-end rooms even when their regular rooms are available," says Sunirmol Ghosh, MD, Indo-Asia Tours.

The overpricing bug seems to have bitten the smaller guesthouses and hotels as well. Guesthouses and small hotels in Delhi's Karol Bagh area are asking for rates charged by five-star hotels a couple of years back.

The fallout of this has been that, compared to the last season, hotel rooms are available aplenty this year and the agents are diverting groups to lower priced destinations.

Pronob Sarkar, MD, Swagatam Tours, claims to have diverted two incentive groups down south to Mysore, Kochi, Madurai, Chennai, where rates vary between $100-200. "The tourism business till now is low, but business conference segment is doing well," he concedes.

Bangalore, too, is steeply priced. Here, the range is anywhere between $350-500. "This, when one can get a premium hotel room for $125 in downtown New York," says Rajji Rai, vice president, Travel Agents Association of India. According to him, "business is at least 15-20 per cent lower than last year".

Rajeev Kohli, director marketing, Creative Travel, sums it up, "Contrary to perception, the actual number of leisure tourists to India is indeed down. The actual number of arrivals to the country may be up, but that can be attributed to a growth in corporate travel."