Radisson India revenue to cross €500 million this year, eyes €750 million in four years

New Delhi: Radisson Hotel Group’s topline in India is expected to cross 500 million Euros this year and the chain expects to clock more than 750 million Euros of revenue in the next four years, Federico J. González, CEO, Radisson Hotel Group, told ET in an exclusive interaction.

González said global uncertainties and dynamic developments in other markets have led the group to double down on India. He said he always looks to India in relative terms.

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“Every year, there is something. We suffered because of the Russia Ukraine conflict. The Middle East conflict has affected us. The region constitutes about 5-7% of the revenues worldwide,” he said.

“This is one of the reasons why we insist on growth in India. “There are inflationary pressures and other challenges globally, but the health and vision of the Indian economy is still very positive,” Gonzalez added.

China is still the largest market for the chain. India is currently the chain’s second biggest market after China in terms of number of hotels and rooms. The chain has around 318 operating hotels and around 39,000 rooms in China.

In India, the chain has around 146 hotels with around 15,946 rooms. He said expansion in India would not entail alliances or strategic partnerships with other brands of Chinese parent company Jin Jiang International.

“China is large and that is driven by Jin Jiang. We are less involved with the China growth plan as that is driven by local teams. We are more focused on the rest of the world. Expansion in India will not mean consolidation or merger of Jin Jiang brands in India although we will continue working alongside Sarovar,” said González. A part of Chinese conglomerate Jin Jiang International, Louvre Hotels Group owns a majority stake in Sarovar Hotels.

“Working alongside Sarovar makes sense. If you add Radisson and Sarovar hotels, we would be the number one international chain in India in terms of hotels. We have said that you can stop every three hours in India and find a Radisson hotel. If you put together Radisson and Sarovar hotels you should be able to do this after one and a half hours,” he added.

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Radisson Hotel Group partnered with ChatGPT about two months ago to enable guests to book hotel rooms on the platform. He said across divisions such as finance, HR services and IT programming and systems, the company is looking to use AI to optimise operations and get faster.

“We are seeing changes already as consumers are using more AI to discover. It’s still a small percentage of people, but that will increase. But, I do hope hotels will retain the human touch, and guests will still keep finding someone to look into their eyes when they check-in,” he added.

González said the chain is moving ahead of targets it had set for itself this year in terms of revenues and EBITDA. “We signed and opened about 22,000 rooms and 160 hotels in the first half of the year. EMEA and India are faring well for us,” he added.