Goa’s hotel rooms are filled by MICE delegates and wedding guests

Christmas is a couple of weeks away and the tourist season has begun in earnest. The charter flights are landing at the airport everyday and the taxi drivers are going about their business in the usual manner. But how is business for the hotels in the State. Are they happy with the state of affairs? Are the tourists staying and more importantly spending? Are the hotels tweaking their strategy and looking at MICE as a platform to generate revenue? Or is it free independent traveller (FIT) who will remain the focus of all attention or that old hand maiden the charter operator who will be godsend. 

For Anand Chatterjee, general manager at Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Goa, Wyndham Hotels, the Christmas season is dominated by the leisure tourist. Mr Chatterjee said “December and January is driven by the leisure tourist but from February it is about weddings and the defense expo. March and April is a mix of both with corporate having their events and FIT too. November was a mix of both it was 50:50. Whereas Dec, Jan was 90:10 leisure:mice.” When asked how he expected the current season to pan, he said it would be similar and there would be organic growth. 

From a five star property to a heritage hotel in the heart of Panjim, the Panjim Inn is at the other end of the argument so to speak. Jack Sukhija, the owner of the property was candid when he said the foreigners were not coming in the numbers as expected. There were the odd MICE event’s held but otherwise it was the leisure traveller. He attributed this to being perhaps being the early half of the season and perhaps by Christmas time, it would improve. As a sole property owner his concern may be very different from that of a GM of an international brand like Marriotts. 

Pranay Verdia, GM, Goa Marriott Resort and Spa said he expected a good season. He said “Goa is an all-year destination. There is a special charm in celebrating this season in Goa as compared to other parts of India. This year we expect it to be a good season for us and our guests. Being a party terminus, Goa Marriott Resort & Spa has a couple of events such as the Christmas Eve Dinner, Christmas Day Brunch and Dinner, New Year’s Eve Party and much more lined up for our guests.”

When asked specifically if business would be driven by MICE or leisure travel he said “Whilst this festive month of December is driven by mostly the leisure tourism, early December has brought in a bit of MICE guests.” Asked for a break up of sales, he said in December in fact, MICE made up 30% of room sales. 

The dynamics of a corporate hotel is very different. Natasha Dias, head sales and marketing, HQ Vasco said the hotel rates in December were very high for corporate and this dissuaded most from having any events in this month. The MICE season, she said would commence in January, February and go on through the year and would hit the high notes during the off season. 

Vikram Antoa of Radisson Blu Resort was categorical that it made sense to focus on MICE and infact 70% of his total business came from that and it would increase even more during the off season. This he said was a case across all properties in Goa with the number of Russian charters having dropped this year. The English tourist was present but not in the numbers as was common in the past. This month he said he had back to back weddings and from January 10, MICE movements would commence. This month he said was usually about leisure travellers but by year end, when he looked at the numbers, 70% of his billing would come from MICE. 

Guitry Velho of Heritage Village bemoaned the absence of a strategy with regards to MICE in the State. He said “We have to get choosy. We have become destination for very cheap weddings. We need to attract high-end FIT from Europe. This year we have Spaniards and a few French tourists through London.” 

Norton Pereira, general manager, Le Meredian is heading a property that is going into its first season. He expressed the confidence that it would be a great run. Mr Pereira said “We see a healthy mix of FITs and MICE movement in this month and are cautiously optimistic that this trend will continue into Q1 of 2018 as well.” Asked about a break up percentage-wise, he said “As for a new hotel like Le Meridien Goa that has been operational for only 5 months now, this will be difficult to say with certainty. However, looking at our trend so far and our outlook for 2018, we are leaning more towards transient business when compared to MICE contribution (be it for business or social events like weddings and milestone occasions.” 

Sameer Kumar, GM, Bay 15 said MICE was the focus of his attention with weddings generating a great deal of business. Weddings he said were now even being held in December. Earlier there was a fear that weddings would result in the loss of a couple of nights for hotels but now the thinking had changed. He said “It gives a revenue push to F&B and MICE usually contributed to 60% of his bottom line.”

A long-time observer of the industry in Goa who did not want to come on record said, the money invested in five star properties were huge and investors were not willing to wait 15 years to see returns. They did not expect profits immediately but breakeven was expected at the very earliest which meant the pressure was on. MICE he said would continue to increase its share in the revenue chart and when the state would come around to construct a proper facility for international conferences it would boom.