Shreya Shimpi
The IHG GSO SWA Showcase 2024 was a great event for networking, business meetings, collaboration and a chance to explore the diverse offerings and locations of these exceptional IHG properties. The participating hotels were Crowne Plaza, Six Senses, Intercontinental Hotels& Resorts, Holiday Inn, Regent, Garner, Atwell Suites, Even, Vignette Collection and many more.
Subhransu Roy, Director of Sales & Marketing, Crowne PlazaPhuQuocStarbay said, “The destination skyrocketed in the second half of 2023. In the last quarter, the average occupancy was eighty per cent from all hotels.2024 looks quite promising as we are seeing huge traction from key markers like Korea, CIS countries and India.”
SaraParastooFarahani, Cluster Senior Sales Manager, Ishraq Hospitality said, “The business growth has been quite good in the first quarter of 2024.MICE has been gaining good momentum at Crowne Plaza Deira. It has the biggest banquet in that area and can accommodate around 700 people. It has three hundred rooms and great accessibility”.
Luca Martinengo, Director of Sales & Marketing Crowne Plaza Zurich sounded optimistic as he said, “We had good business in the first two months of 2024. In February, we received a lot of travellers from the leisure segment. We are expecting MICE business from Q2 to Q3. India is the fourth strongest market for Zurich”.
BOTT spoke with Palak Shah, Regional Director Sales, South WestAsia, IHG Hotels & Resorts in an exclusive chat and here is what he shared-
Tell us something about the event.
This is our thirteenth edition. We call it IHG Global Sales. The objective of this event is toshowcase our international hotels and meet clients based in India. We focus primarily on three segments-Corporate, MICE and leisure. We wish to promote India as a source market for international destinations. The response has been amazing every year. This year, the Delhi event saw a participation of over eighty to two hundred clients. We are expecting a similar response here. In terms of business, we are seeing phenomenal growth. We would like to thank the Government and our Prime Minister specially, who has been a major driving force behind this growth. This year, we have nineteen participants representing approximately thirty-six hotels. We have one lady representing twenty-one hotels from Australia and New Zealand. A few of our other colleagues too are representing multiple hotels. Usually, we have an average of thirty to thirty-four participants representing more than fifty hotels. We have to limit it because the venue becomes a problem. It also becomes easier for the clients to interact with a limited number of participants.
Which other cities are you hosting this event?
We usually do it in the three major cities – Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. This year we have skipped Bangalore.We have organised the event in Mumbai and Delhi. We are getting few of our clients flown in from Bangalore to Mumbai.
What is your vision for 2024?
We are just into the third month of this year and have achieved thirty to thirty-five per cent of last year’s figures. If this pace continues, we shall beat our 2023 numbers till September-October this year depending on the circumstances. New destinations such as Vietnam are opening up. The good part is that our airlines are pitching in strongly. The sky is the limit!
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