Sterling Holidays plans to double room inventory by 2023

Chennai-based hospitality firm Sterling Holidays is looking to double its inventory to 4,800 rooms by 2023, a top company official said. It is planning to launch six resorts in the next 12 months at Guruvayur, Mysore, Thekkady, Karjat and Igatpuri, Konaseema, with five out of the six properties operated through management contracts and one a lease resort.

The company has 35 resorts spread across 30 locations, including Sterling and Nature Trails properties. The six additional properties will take its tally of resorts to 41. It has a total of 15 properties which are company-owned, including the four acquired Nature Trails properties as well, while the remaining are on lease or under management contracts.

The owned properties comprise 65 percent of the total room inventory of Sterling. "As of now, we have 2,400 rooms. The new six resorts will add about 450 rooms over the next 12 months taking the total count of rooms to 2,850. The plan is to double the rooms to 4,800 rooms by 2023," Sterling Holidays Managing Director Ramesh Ramanathan told PTI in an email interaction.

"With the new resort launches, we are looking at aggressive growth of the company based on growth in domestic tourism consumption," he added. Last fiscal, the topline was Rs 270 crore and it expects to continue growth and expansion aggressively in the current year.

"We have a four-pronged strategy taking cognizance of the travel trends of the Indian consumer. We will focus and open resorts in regular holiday destinations -- hills, jungles, beaches, mountains, resorts in pilgrim centers, resorts in heritage centers, resorts which are drive-to from the metros," he said. It is also planning to expand Nature Trails to a few more locations in the next few years.

Ramanathan said he is not worried about the slowdown in the industry and expects the company's hybrid model of members and non-members will ensure healthy growth in occupancies over the next few years. It has 87,086 members and the revenue contribution from members and non-members are equal.

"The RevPAR (revenue per available room) at present is Rs 2,770. There has been no negative impact on our growth. The CAGR of our RevPAR over the last five years is 11 percent," he said.

On overseas expansion plan, Ramanathan said, "Thailand, Malaysia, Dubai, Singapore, Srilanka, Bhutan, Nepal places that our customers would be keen on traveling to. This is planned after we set up a substantial presence in the domestic market." Sterling Holiday Resorts is a 100 percent independently managed subsidiary of Thomas Cook India.