India and China are more often at odds than they are shaking hands in business deals. But when it comes to the glam-slam world of luxury hotels, the Indian Hotels Company’s (BOM:500850) growth target right now is the Chinese.
China tourism companies are happy to have them. Taj Hotels Resorts And Palaces, The $1.2 billion hotel company managed by the Tata Group out of Mumbai has four new hotels going up in China this year, more than in any other country.
It partnered with Yunnan Tourism Company in 2012 to jump start IHC’s entrance into a market the travel pros can’t seem to get enough of. “For a hotelier today, the luxury target is the Chinese,” says Raymond Bickson, CEO of IHC. It’s a comment everyone in luxury retail and travel has heard at every industry conference since 2005. “In the eighties it was all about the Japanese luxury traveler. In the nineties it was the Russians. And now, China is the market everyone wants to either be in, or bring to them.”
China tourism companies are happy to have them. Taj Hotels Resorts And Palaces, The $1.2 billion hotel company managed by the Tata Group out of Mumbai has four new hotels going up in China this year, more than in any other country.
It partnered with Yunnan Tourism Company in 2012 to jump start IHC’s entrance into a market the travel pros can’t seem to get enough of. “For a hotelier today, the luxury target is the Chinese,” says Raymond Bickson, CEO of IHC. It’s a comment everyone in luxury retail and travel has heard at every industry conference since 2005. “In the eighties it was all about the Japanese luxury traveler. In the nineties it was the Russians. And now, China is the market everyone wants to either be in, or bring to them.”