The Verda Group of Hotels are Goa’s first indigenous hospitality management company and recently won the Brands Academy Hospitality Excellence Awards 2014. Dinesh Singh and Avinash Parmar met with Ajit John to talk about their plans and the challenges of operating in the state in an industry that is witnessing a great deal of churn.
Herald: You are possibly the only truly Goan hospitality management company, how do you feel winning this award?
Dinesh Singh: It is good feeling yes but there is a long journey ahead of us. This company is three years old and we have six properties which include 4 and 5 star hotels, service apartments and boutique hotels and we intend to bring in another hotel in Carmona under our scope of activities. We are professionals with a combined experience of half a century. Like I said earlier the Verda exists with 3 properties in Anjuna, 1 in Vagator, 1 in Porvorim, 1 in Baga, all these in North Goa. In South Goa ‘The Verda’ is a 5 star standard resort on Carmona beach and a boutique resort is scheduled to open on Varca beach ‘The O S Verda’.
Herald: You and Avinash Parmar have been worked in hotels in the state for over twenty years, how has the market changed?
Avinash Parmar: let us look at this forthcoming season, the Ukraine problem resulted in fears that the charter flights could get affected but if you look at it closely you will realise that barely 5% of the charter flights come from that country. This year I believe the majority of the tourists will come from Russia and this will be the case for some time to come. The market is constantly evolving the paying public is demanding more for the buck and yes there are other destinations that have opened up and competing for the same tourist.
Herald: What do you think Goa ought to do in face of competition?
DS: I know for a fact that the authorities are looking at other parts of the world to get their nationals to come here. As of today we have tourists coming from five or six countries that were part of the CIS countries and we should look at the other countries who were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union and promote the state there. The tourism authorities are also looking at countries like Austria, Belgium very seriously. The thinking is that this Russian trend will last another three or five years at the most and then they will look for another destination.
Herald: Do we have the capacity to handle the possible increase in the number of tourists from these places?
DS: There are approximately a lakh beds and yes there are more hotels coming up so there are more beds available. I think what Goa should be doing is selling the off season more aggressively around the world. When that happens we will not face the situation whereby during the season it is packed and during the monsoons everyone is fighting for those tourists who visit the state.
Herald: What are the kinds of fees you charge your clients in the state?
DS: We charge anywhere between 4-10% depending on the inventory, lower the inventory higher the fees. There are other Goans in the state who are trying to do what we are doing and I am sure in the future there will be more Goan bred players in the business.
