Sébastien Bazin believes India has untapped potential, and asserts players need to increase their goals and ambitions to cater to the demand of the market. “Ninety percent of the success of hotel companies is linked to two things – demography and emerging middle class,” Accor chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin
Accor currently has 62 operational hotels in India, and nine properties in its pipeline are set to open this year. Last year, the French hotel company signed a record 11 hotels in India and opened six.
The top five hotel operators in India collectively have less than 1,000 hotels. In China, this figure is 25,000. “The question before all of us is how we could collectively go from 1,000 hotels to 15,000 hotels without having to wait 15 years for it. There is a demand and there is the emerging middle class that needs affordable accommodation and wants to discover the country,” he said.
Talking about the requirements for achieving this growth, Bazin said hoteliers need to be agile, adaptable, patient, and trusting. “Anyone who says that they will double their portfolio in five years lacks ambition. India has the potential and need for 10 times that ambition,” he said.
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