Sterling Holidays Resorts plans to add new hotel every month to cash in on domestic tourism growth

New Delhi: Sterling Holidays Resorts Ltd, a part of Thomas Cook India group, plans to add a new hotel every month in the second half of this year to cash in on the robust growth witnessed in domestic tourism, according to a top group official.

The company expects the number of properties to increase to 55 during the course of next year, Thomas Cook (India) Chairman and Managing Director Madhavan Menon told PTI.

As on April 30, 2023 Sterling has 2,447 rooms across 40 resorts, out of which 15 company-owned resorts, 10 leased and 15 management contracts. It plans to add 188 rooms across six resorts in the first half of the current financial year.

"Sterling Holidays Resorts, which is becoming a hospitality business from what was originally conceived as a timeshare, is going to add a new hotel every month in the second half of this year," he said.

Menon further said, "We are going to see nearly a 50 per cent increase in the number of rooms we will offer at Sterling over the next one and a half years."

On the rationale behind the expansion, he said,"The reality is (that) there are huge opportunities in the domestic segment."

Post-pandemic, Menon said tourism in India has grown at a very fast speed with people taking frequent family breaks and multiple domestic trips instead of "one international trip and maybe another domestic trip" earlier.

The expansion of Sterling has also been planned to cater to these trends, he said, adding the new hotels "are not metro hotels. These are all in hill stations and in other smaller towns which will attract tourists".

When asked about the overall outlook for Thomas Cook (India), Menon declined to give guidance but said,"...all our businesses will fire on full cylinders".

Some of the company's businesses such as inbound tourists arrivals in India and Southeast Asia have not reached the pre-COVID levels due slow recovery as long haul travels from the main source markets of Europe and the US have been slow but these are expected to grow going forward, he added.

Apart from heightened demand, steps taken by company such as cost control and digitisation across all its businesses would also add benefit to the bottomline, Menon said.

"So my expectation is that FY24 is going to be a good year. We have visibility quarter on quarter... but the prospect is very good and I have no doubt that we are looking forward to a good year," he added.

In FY23 Thomas Cook (India) posted a total income from operations of Rs 5,111.2 crore as compared to Rs 1,946.06 crore in FY22.