We need to cater to new segments

Upaul Majumdar is the newly appointed general manager of Soaltee Crowne Plaza Kathmandu with more than 500 staff.. He took charge of the hotel on July 19.

Kriti Bhuju of Republica recently talked to Majumdar on the strategies for marketing tourism products and services in the post-earthquake scenario and the challenges of the tourism industry. Excerpts:

You have taken the new responsibility at a very challenging time. What will be your priorities in this post-quake situation?

Yes. We are at a challenging time. To deal with the situation, I have prioritized five major sectors: working with tourism stakeholders to bring more tourists, focus on infrastructure development i.e. upgrading the standard and quality of service of my hotel, bringing down cost without compromising on standard but by minimizing unnecessary use of resources, employee engagement, and exploring the future market.

Hotel occupancy has fallen drastically after the earthquake. How is the occupancy in your hotel?

For 20 to 25 days after the quake, many hotels received full occupancy and so did ours. However, occupancy dropped to 24 to 25 percent after the relief team returned. We had gone through similar kind of situation in Nepal when we recorded poor occupancy during insurgency. However, our staff handled the situation well with their experience and focused on providing customized service to guest when they have more time.

How are you engaging your staff in this situation? Many hotels have reduced workforce to reduce operating cost. Have you resorted to a similar strategy?

We use free time to work with our people. Being a part of Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), we have many platforms for leadership and attitudinal training, and we are providing that training to upgrade our workforce. Though we have less work, we keep our employee engaged so that the people coming here will get better service. We have also pre-poned the renovation works. The hotel will have a new porch, new lobby and renovated rooms by October.

Our strength is our staff. I believe reduction of workforce is a bad idea. You cannot reduce people when the business is low. We are upgrading their capacity through different trainings instead.

So what are your plans to attract visitors to your hotel?

So far, we had traditional markets and traditional business. We are largely a leisure-driven hotel. But we won't be seeing many tourists coming here for leisure after the earthquake. Now we need to develop newer strategies and cater the segment we have never addressed before.

We will launch price-driven customized package with added value. Pricing is an important factor. But what matters is giving wholesome experience in that price. Our guest will not compromise on quality even if they pay lower price. Hence, we are looking at customizing our service to meet the demand of our customers.

We are also coming up with attractive short-term packages with best cuisine experience. The packages, which will be targeted to specific market, will be launched by this week. We are also planning to bring new package by targeting domestic market and provide them 5-star experience. Similarly, we are also launching family package where in we will have special program for couples and children.

Many pinpoint power supply and labor unrest as major factors hindering growth of tourism industry? How problematic are these issues? What are the other factors that are hindering growth of hotel industry?

One of our principles is to understand and value people. We have very good relation with our staff and the trade union here. That is why there are is no problem till date. We have been supporting our staffs through IHG's 'Shelters in Storm' program where all hotels in the group make certain contribution. We received US$ 134,600 from the fund as relief for our staff affected by the quake.

There is no respite from load-shedding. Currently, almost all hotels are operating in loss and the load-shedding is only adding to our woes.

Lack of adequate tourism infrastructure is a big challenge. To have a single international airport is a major hindrance. Similarly, lack of incentives is the other problem as this is the industry which requires high investment but gives low return. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has to function properly and spend more on promotion and marketing.

Foreign investors are ready to invest on tourism. But it is difficult to take back the money. I think country's labor laws should be different for different types of industries.

Besides all these, we need a joint action plan from the government and the private sector for the revival and promotion of tourism in Nepal.

Social media marketing is important these days. How active are you in social media?

We have around 10,000 followers on Facebook. We regularly update our page and flow our information through it. We are also working with IHG to keep Kathmandu in their map as they have large number of hotels in the group and many followers in social media.

Source: Republica