These spas will provide a mix of leisure and ayurvedic treatment, mostly to visiting foreign tourists. CCIL has joined hands with Kerala-based Kairali Group, which has been providing ayurvedic services for the last 8 decades. Kairali group will manage the spas and provide authentic ayurveda treatment with trained ayurvedic doctors, therapists, dieticians and cooks. CCIL will invest in creating the infrastructure, said Y Rajeev Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, CCIL. |
"There is enormous business potential in medical tourism as a large number of foreign nationals are visiting India for treatment. Especially authentic ayurveda therapy is gaining popularity among foreigners. Seeing this potential, we have entered this business and extend ayurvedic treatment cum leisure to our existing members as well as overseas visitors," he told Business Standard.
In the first phase, CCIL plans to open seven ayurvedic spas, which will have an inventory of 1,000 rooms. This includes rooms from its existing properties. Currently, CCIL owns 43 properties and another 175 are contributed by its franchisees.
The first spa has just been opened in Hyderabad and the second spa is being opened near Bangalore in August this year. The remaining spas will be located in Chennai, Kovalam, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Kolad and Kolkata in the next one year.
The Bangalore spa is spread over a 750 acre Coconut Grove near Tumkur, where the company is building 120 cottages.
CCIL is mainly targetting customers in Europe and West Asia for its ayurvedic spas. It has opened office in Dubai to attract visitors to its spas through package tours. "We already have a fixed base of members. We will extend this wellness package to them and through them rope in new members," Reddy said.
Recently, CCIL has acquired a property in Dubai and planning to garner new set of international members who will be incentivised to come to India and make use of ayurvedic treatment. With about 50 per cent occupancy at these ayurvedic spas, CCIL expects to register a business worth Rs 150 crore, he said.
Last year, CCIL had raised Rs 486 crore through a GDR/QIP issue last year. CCIL has doubled its turnover to Rs 315 crore in 2007-08 compared to the previous year with a net profit of Rs 65 crore. For the current year also, it is planning to double its revenues to over Rs 650 crore.
