Mulls over Rs 400 crore Investment across New Projects
Visakhapatnam headquartered Daspalla Group of Hotels is betting big on the hospitality space and has charted out mega expansion plans not only within the state of Andhra Pradesh but is also strengthening its portfolio in Telangana.
In Andhra Pradesh, the group is working on a slew of new properties slated to come up across Vizag, Amaravati, Tirupati and also Hyderabad in Telangana.
“In the near term, the focus is on Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, while Tirupati is being considered as a longer-term market.
We look to invest about Rs 400 to Rs 500 crores across these properties” said Mr Venkata Gannamaneni, Joint Managing Director, Daspalla Group of Hotels speaking exclusively to Vizag Industrial Scan.
In the state’s capital Amaravati Daspalla hotels is building a Rs. 180 crore luxury four-star hotel which will boast of 150 luxury guest rooms along with suites.
This property will include a premium convention centre, three grand banquet halls, a conference hall, multiple multi-cuisine restaurants, a cafeteria, swimming pool, health club and wellness spa.
The project is expected to generate around 400 permanent jobs, with the wider employment impact potentially reaching about 600 through contractors and vendors.
Similarly, in Visakhapatnam, the group is evaluating a hotel in Rushikonda and a resort near the new greenfield airport in Bhogapuram.
“The airport property is being envisaged as a more nature-oriented, green resort rather than a conventional city hotel” informed Mr Gannamaneni.
The hotel group currently employs around 1,000 employees and is targeting 2,500+ employees as it expands.
Talking on some of the operational challenges the group’s joint managing director said hotel companies are facing an acute shortage of labour, rising input costs and weaker consumer spending.
“Raw-material costs have risen by around 20-25 per cent, while cooking-gas prices and labour costs have also significantly increased.
It’s also becoming increasingly difficult to find stewards, captains, housekeeping staff, supervisors, chefs and cooks and we are thus looking beyond Andhra Pradesh for talent, including hiring from the Northeast and eastern India” said the JMD.
With the influx of new star hotels coming into Visakhapatnam, he called for ways of boosting demand and further increasing tourism.
“For hotels to survive, there are two key things – have more tourism and have more industries,” Mr Gannamaneni said.
He thus called upon state authorities to work on tourism infrastructure and destination development to increase footfall, keeping in mind the discerning Indian traveller.
The group is engaging with the state government on measures it believes could help increase tourism.
The company is also betting on technology to improve operating efficiency. It has introduced WhatsApp-based guest interaction and AI-enabled services for room-service requests, housekeeping and maintenance complaints.
Beyond hotels, Daspalla plans to eventually take its in-house food products, including pickles, savouries, sweets, ice creams and bakery products to standalone outlets.
Daspalla’s assessment of the market is clear – more hotels alone will not create a larger hospitality business.
“The only way is how do we increase the footfall,” he said. For Daspalla, that may prove to be the most important part of its expansion plan.
