DellaMoor00

Developments in Indian hospitality have followed those of more mature markets in the west, moving from a one-size-fits-all approach to offering a vast repository of niche products tailor-made to meet the demands of focused segments. Achal Dhruva traces this growth trajectory in the Indian context. The rapidly changing dynamics of the tourism industry across the globe has catapulted the trend of going niche into prominence. It is of special relevance to a huge and diverse country like India and the players have either already adopted a niche approach or will be forced to do so in order to sustain themselves. Segmentation has come a long way from the first phase in the Indian hospitality industry. After the emergence of luxury, business and budget hotels, there were resorts that further diversified into luxury resorts, spa resorts, wildlife resorts, etc. While business hotels were based on similar lines as Kerala Luxury Hotels , they did not have too many frills and were focused on business-oriented activities like meetings and conferences, health activities, internet and wireless connectivity, etc. Today, they are witness to niche segments like budget business hotels and service apartments, which are a relatively recent phenomenon. This development was a result of the need to cater to a niche market with specific requirements. Broadly, this trend of going niche can be classified as niche by product, niche by region/destination and niche by target audience. In the next five to ten years, these approaches will be adopted either singularly or in combination. However, going niche comes with its own set of challenges. According to Kannampilly, the biggest challenge for a large organization planning to go niche is to sustain the interest even internally since the return on investment takes longer in a niche approach. The gestation time for a new idea to catch on is also what deters hoteliers to go totally niche and they first enter a more established segment before exploring the niche option. The single biggest factor is the success in promoting the idea, to generate visibility and to bankroll the initial enthusiasm into a long term habit.