India likes it old fashioned with majority of businesses
confirming ‘direct enquiry with hotel’ as the most important source of
reservations
India shows the highest proportion of businesses in Asia Pacific
that expect the economy to improve in next six months
TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel
site*, today announced the results of the latest TripAdvisor Industry
Index which revealed some startling findings about today’s top
hospitality trends for India and around the world. With more than 25,000
responses from hoteliers around the globe, it is the world’s largest hotel
survey. The Asia Pacific region accounted for slightly over a fifth of
the entire sample and India formed the largest segment of this region with just
over 1,500 respondents, making it the largest hotel survey in India as well.
50% of Asia-Pacific respondents reported optimism
about the economy for the remainder of the year believing the economy would
improve. The report further shows that hoteliers in Asia
Pacific, North America and Latin America were twice as likely to report being
profitable in the last six months than hoteliers in the EMEA(Europe Middle East
and Africa) region who are the least optimistic about the future.
TripAdvisor’s
hotel survey has also uncovered a number of other industry insights, including
accommodations’ business outlook, how they are engaging with travellers on
social and mobile platforms and their plans to offer eco-friendly programs.
Summarising
survey highlights for India, Nikhil Ganju (Country Manager, TripAdvisor India)
said, “Most survey results for India cue a positive industry sentiment. In fact
we designed an industry scale based on survey response on economic and business
outlook of properties, which indicate better than average business health for
India, which ranks second in APAC region and fifth in the world.”
Adding
further, he said “Another highlight of the survey reveals that though Indian
hoteliers recognize the importance of social and mobile marketing, they are
slow at adopting their use to connect with current and potential customers,
compared to global numbers.”
India
Displays Healthy Start and Hearty Optimism
- Indonesia and India have the
highest proportion of respondents in Asia Pacific reporting their business
as extremely profitable (6% for both areas) or very profitable (38% for
Indonesia and 29% for India) in the last 6 months.
- India shows unbridled optimism
with the highest proportion of businesses in APAC that expect the economy
to improve in the next 6 months. 66% respondents support the claim that
the economy will improve a little /lot in the second half of 2012.
- The positive business outlook
also seems to be evident from the staffing plans in second half of 2012,
as India ranks highest globally among all countries surveyed, for staff
turnover based on increased staff levels.
- While most respondents in APAC
reported that there would be no change in their staffing levels in the
next 6 months, respondents in India were more likely to increase their
staff (39%), followed by Thailand (31%) and Indonesia (30%).
Simmer
Summer and a Flagging Fall
While
50% businesses reported an increase in room occupancy this summer compared to
same period last year, 70% hotels said they had to bring down room rate or keep
them same to attract more guests in the summer. Only 24% hotels actually
increased the room rate. Also 62% hotels are looking
at reducing or not revising their room rates, leading up to the fall season.
Business
Outlook Rankings
India
ranks fifth in the world for hotels with the best business outlook, while
Greece ranks last, according to respondents’ answers to a number of questions gauging
the perceived health of their business.
Most Positive Outlook:
1. Indonesia
2. Brazil
3. Russia
4. United States
5. India
Most Negative Outlook:
18. New Zealand
19. France
20. Spain
21. Italy
22. Greece
Playing Catch Up on Social, Online & Mobile
SOCIAL
59% of Indian businesses claim to be using social
media to engage with current and potential guests. While this number looks very
encouraging it is still a far cry from businesses in South East Asia with
over 80% of respondents in Malaysia and Indonesia using it.
Top three reasons cited by Indian hotels to use social
media are:
- Responding to reviews (57%)
- Posting deals/special offers
(55%)
- Promoting events (33%)
ONLINE
BOOKING
Majority
of hotel respondents in Asia Pacific confirmed having a website for their
property with online booking facility. India had the lowest proportion of hotel
respondents with online booking.
This
is further corroborated by the survey finding that only 11% respondents cited
online booking through hotel website as the top source of reservation for them.
A majority of 66% respondents claim ‘direct enquiry with hotel’ to be among top
3 sources of reservations for them.
MOBILE
While
the importance of mobile as a marketing platform is recognised by the industry at
large, properties have not yet adopted mobile programs en masse.
86%
Indian properties believe that allowing the guests to book online via mobile
apps is very/somewhat important and 75% of properties also believe it is
important to make special offers available to users of mobile devices. However,
only 21% respondents confirmed they actually offer any programs to engage with
current and/or potential guests using mobile devices.
India
Top Deals
So far this year, room rate discounts and amenities
(e.g. free wifi access) emerged globally as the two most common special
offers doled out by hotels to attract customers.
India too follows the global trend with 54% businesses
who offered discount on room rate and 48 percent who gave access to special
amenities.
Eco-Friendly
Programs: 'Win-Win' for Hotel Budgets and Environment
Hotels in Asia Pacific indicated eco-friendly
practices as being more important for them than Inns and Bed & Breakfast
establishments. Eco-friendly practices are most likely to be reported
as very important in India and least likely in Australia.
India ranks eleventh globally and fourth in APAC in a rank of nations based on
the proportion of respondent that have eco-practices actually in place. New
Zealand tops the global and regional list with 95% of respondents with
eco-friendly practices.
Cost
Reduction and Industry trends rank as the top two reasons globally driving
adoption of eco practices by businesses, including India.
Methodology
The
latest TripAdvisor 2012 Industry Index was conducted June 7- 14, 2012 and was
sent by email to a random sample of global accommodation owners and managers.
The survey generated 25,517 responses worldwide. A total of 5,458 respondents were based in the Asian
Pacific region, making up a just over a fifth of the entire sample. The region
was divided into nine different areas. India formed the largest segment of this
region with just over 1,500 respondents, followed by Australia with just under
1000 respondents. Data analysis and other survey consultation
were performed by Brainbox Research Ltd. Sample size for India was 1516
contributing the largest to the pie in Asia Pacific. Please note sample sizes
for the following countries were low compared to the other countries surveyed:
China (188), Malaysia (129), Mexico (151) and Russia (64).
