After two days of insightful and forward-looking discussions and deliberations, HVS ANAROCK HOPE 2023, India’s most exclusive Hospitality Summit, wound down at the Taj Resort & Convention Centre, Goa, in a spirit of optimism. Showcasing India’s global stature as a hospitality industry powerhouse, HOPE (Hospitality Overview Presentation & Exchange) brought together Indian and international hospitality players for two days of high-octane knowledge exchange, networking, and also celebration.

The select gathering over the two days witnessed more than 300 hospitality and travel eminences, and the senior leadership of domestic and international hotel chain operators, as well as hotel owners, investors, travel gurus, thought leaders and influencers from across the globe. This annual event promises to redefine how hospitality confers, networks, and celebrates success.

The second day’s proceedings started with the Keynote Address. ‘Story of India: All facts No Fiction’ by  Deepak Bagla, Managing Director, Invest India. He spoke at length about how the planning that was laid out 100 months back for the development of Aviation and Tourism space in our country is laying the foundation of making India the next superpower. With the UDAN initiative touching the lives of 1cr Indians and the almost doubling up of airports in the last 9 years from 74 in 2014 to 141 in 2022, India is rapidly moving towards achieving the superpower status. Stressing on the importance of ‘wellness tourism’ in the coming years, Bagla also emphasised upon the importance of digitisation in the travel space and how ‘single window’ clearances will make the industry perform and grow seamlessly.

An HVS ANAROCK Presentation, Spotlight on India: No looking back, by Mandeep S. Lamba—President, South Asia, HVS ANAROCK—launched the agenda on Day two of HOPE 2023. Lamba not only emphasised on the sectorial growth that the country has witnessed viz-a-viz tourism, travel and hospitality but also gave an overview of what India is going to witness in terms of infrastructural development in the coming years.

The star-studded Day 2 of HOPE 2023 started with a Lounge Chat of  Campbell Wilson, CEO & Managing Director, Air India and  Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO, IHCL with Aindrila Mitra, Editor-in-Chief, Travel & Leisure, India & South Asia. While Campbell was very optimistic about the quick turnaround of the culture and operations of the group post the merger, he talked about the greater need of having the right distribution partners. Chhatwal talked about the consolidation and expansion that IHCL is going to see in the next 5-10 years and echoed the sentiments of  Bagla and  Lamba about India holding a very unique position in the global tourism & hospitality space. He also congratulated the industry on the resilience it has shown during and post COVID and that the growth trajectory in the last 2-3 quarters bears testimony to the way the sector has bounced back. He believes that with FDIs, Institutional Investments and partnerships such as that of IHCL and Air India will propel the Indian tourism and hospitality industry to greater heights.

This was followed by a series of panel discussions, including CEOs Panel 1 (New Models, New Playbook: Is the Indian landscape changing?), which featured Anuraag Bhatnagar, Chief Operating Officer, The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts; Jatin Khanna, Chief Executive Officer, Sarovar Hotels; Puneet Dhawan, Senior Vice President – Operations, India & South Asia, Accor; Ranju Alex, Area Vice President, South Asia, Marriott International; and Vikramjit Singh, President, Lemon Tree Hotels. The session was moderated by Vijay Thacker, Managing Director, Horwath HTL, India. This session stressed on the importance of Tier 2 and 3 markets and the inclusion of technology to make the industry more inclusive. It also touched upon the layers of infrastructural development coupled up with increased disposable incomes propelling more people to travel, thereby laying the foundation of more hotels.

Meanwhile, in the Tech Panel 1 session (Future of Travel Technology: Where are we headed?), Ipshita Kumar, Vice President – Brand Innovations, Hype Partners, was joined by Joy Ghosh, Head of Commercial – Indian Subcontinent, Middle East, Africa & Turkey, Amadeus Hospitality; and Nuno Guerreiro, Regional Director, South APAC & Chains, Booking.com, with Ajay Mehtani—Senior Vice President, Asset Management, HVS ANAROCK—playing the role of moderator. The biggest takeaway from the panel was that the future of hospitality looks promising with human interface and technology in terms of VR, AI, etc. doing a joint play and that they will co-exist to create more opportunities in the sectors.

Participating in CEO’s Panel 2 (Crystal Ball Gazing: Journey of a hotel guest in 2033) were Navjit Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President & Country Head – India, Hilton; Prabhat Verma, Executive Vice President – Operations, South India, International Hotels & Expressions, IHCL; Sanjay Sethi, Managing Director & CEO, Chalet Hotels; Sudeep Jain, Managing Director, South West Asia, IHG; Sunjae Sharma, Managing Director, India & Southwest Asia, Hyatt Hotels Corporation; and Vijay Dewan, Managing Director, Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Limited. Nikhil Sharma—Market Managing Director, Eurasia Wyndham Hotels & Resorts—moderated the session. This session was all about enhancing the guest experience and making his experience of staying in a hotel the most memorable one. Again, the interplay of automation and human interaction was discussed at length and the need of an integrated system was emphasised upon to do away with multiple touch points.