THE Park Hotel Bangalore is renowned for its elegant space, exotic experience, and exquisite cuisine. Post-Covid, the property is adopting a series of protocols to enhance the guest experience. In an interview with Voyager’s World, Ajit Singh Garcha, Area General Manager, THE Park Bangalore, highlights the brand’s post-pandemic roadmap.
With reference to the current Covid situation, what’s your take on the global hospitality industry worldwide?
Leisure destinations will start doing well and coupled with holistic healing can lead the markets. Ayurveda in India can become a game-changer for tourism in the coming days for foreigners.
Technology has become even more important, less human interaction is better. We will see a significant increase in touchless and contactless services. It would mean fewer people working in hotels. HR cost is the highest fixed cost in hospitality which will have a significant downward revision.
Sustainability, Local and Smaller will be valued by guests. In terms of smaller MICE segment will have a significant negative impact for a long duration.
What steps is THE Park Bangalore taking to draw in more guests?
We have a SHIELD protocol curated for our property, which covers all safety and hygiene aspects. Meanwhile, we have implemented contactless ordering, service and delivery all across the hotel.
What steps must governments across the world take to promote tourism and hospitality?
The Indian government needs to promote the Ayurveda of India and the benefits much more to attract global travelers. Governments across the world need to stop creating panic about the COVID19 considering the very low mortality rate.
What’s your forecast for the next six months with respect to hospitality?
We see demand to start increasing from Q3, that is from October 2020 onwards.
How has your brand messaging changed post-Covid?
Our messaging was more empathetic, informative and factual in the beginning especially when the lockdown was announced. During the unlocking phase, we communicated about elevating our safety and hygiene standards and about the preventive steps undertaken to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our guests and associates. Another communication was about the change in booking policy. Our focus was to share information with our guests about the concrete steps taken in this regard. All our activities and messaging were aligned towards what our guests wanted to know. We moved towards live entertainment as well by organizing virtual live sessions with renowned artists and musicians. We also engaged our digital audience through cooking and wellness DIY videos with our chefs, health and fitness experts. And now since most of the hotels are accepting bookings, the entire communication is about the offers that are available and the safety measures that we have undertaken.
