Global Strategy For International Management: Modes By Which Banyan Tree Hotel And Resorts Will Enter In Indian Hotel Market

Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts

Discuss about the Global Strategy for International Management.

India is a totally new place for the Banyan Trees spa and Resorts; it will be very beneficial if they can enter into a joint venture or partnership. This partnership must be with an already established hotel or chain of hotels in India. So, they can enter into a partnership with any other local hotel company like the Kochi Marriot Hotel. This will help the Banyan Tree Hotels to understand and gain a firsthand knowledge about the culture and preference pattern of the Indian customers. It is with the help of this local hotel company, that some local tourists can also become a regular customer of the hotel. As Banyan Trees have never had any business chains opened up in India previously, they will require help in order to know the prevailing conditions of the Indian hotel market.  Apart from knowing the market trends of the Indian hotel market, a partnership with a local Indian hotel will also enable them to know about the demands of the local customers. As the Banyan Trees have decided to open up their hotels in Kerala, they might enter into a partnership with the Kochi Marriot Hotel. This will be very helpful because Kochi Marriot hotel is a very popular and well-known hotel of Kerala. It is well known not only for its good customer service but also because of its location. It is centrally located, thus attracting a large number of tourists both from within Kerala and outside as well. It is located in the vibrant IT district of Kochi, on the campus of Lulu Mall. So, entering into a partnership with this hotel will help in increasing the popularity of the Banyan Trees.

It is a known fact that in order to start their business in India and carry on with it successfully, they need a good platform. Partnership with Kochi Marriot Hotel will perhaps be a very good launching pad for their new business idea.

The other advantages that the Banyan Trees Hotels will derive from their partnership with the Kochi Marriot Hotel are an increased number of customers for the spa and message activities. As the banyan trees themselves have a good expertise in the spa, this will have an added advantage for them. Kochi Marriot Hotel has a large number of additional customer facilities. They are airport shuttle, full-service spa, pool, fitness center. This will naturally be a great advantage for the banyan trees hotel because they specialize in the spa, massage and fitness activities. As the Kochi Marriot Hotel itself already has their spa and fitness activities, as a part of their key amenities, it will be easier for the banyan trees to carry on with their spa sessions as well. They will not have to spend any extra labor or time and energy to set up a separate spa and fitness outlet of their own. At the same time, they will also be receiving a detailed description of all the business tips from the Kochi Marriot Hotel itself. This partnership will be beneficial for the Banyan Trees Hotels because they will be saved from the time and energy to make a constant market research on their own. As the Kochi Marriott hotel already has a good established platform and recognition of their own, they will help the Banyan Trees Hotel in every possible way.

Things to keep in mind while entering Indian Hotel Market

This hotel chain comes with a wide range of cozy, comfortable, warm private villas that are surrounded by beautifully decorated tropic gardens. In the midst of this beautiful pristine environment, the tourists can enjoy the soothing and calming body massage sessions and spa. These are just the things that the modern day tourists are looking for everywhere. Along with all these facilities, the Banyan Tree resorts and spa chains also take very much care about the fact that Indians are people with a rich cultural root and also have a great appetite for tradition and antique things. Keeping this in mind, the Banyan Tree hotels and spa resorts have also added several galleries and museums that sell the traditional antique items. Apart from this they also offer retail shops for the tourists to go shopping as and when they feel like. They have almost every aspect within them that are demanded by the Indian tourists. However, in order to enter into India, they need to make a thorough market research in order to find out the proper market entry mode so that they can target the right group of customers and can carry on their business following the right market strategies.

The most crucial thing that Banyan Tree hotels need to keep in mind while entering India is that they must stick to what is local and what is unique. In other words, they must always try to match with the local flavors of the city. They must make a thorough survey of the specific needs and demands of the local customers and design their hotels accordingly, be it in terms of their rooms, the gardens and even the cuisines that will be served in the resorts (Lai and Hitchcock 2017).

The first and foremost thing that Banyan Tree Hotels must keep in mind is selecting the location wisely. As they are totally new to India, it will be wise for them to set up their business in such a place which is already exposed to local and global tourism and also have a demand for the goods and services that this hotel has to offer. 

As Banyan Tree is mainly a chain of hotels that will offer spa treatment sessions, it is of utmost importance for them that they must purchase the top quality input materials for all the spa treatments. It is the place where people will come for soothing their minds and toning up their body parts, hence no compromise is to be made with the quality of the products. It must be pure, fresh and totally free from any harmful materials.

Selecting a proper location

As they will excel in spa sessions keeping proper medical aids and dermatologist facilities on a 24*7 basis is of utmost importance so that proper assistance can be given during cases of an emergency.

As India is a very new place for Banyan Tree Hotels, they must make things simple for themselves and for themselves and for the customers as well. There must be enough flexibility in the booking services, schedule resources etc (Lagrosen et al 2016).

In order to attract more number of customers, Banyan Tree hotels must make sure that they are allowing a considerable amount of discounts and offers for free spa sessions to their customers. Customer satisfaction must be the top most priority of a new start-up business.

As they are a totally new business startup in India, they must make sure that they are easily reachable by all the visitors. Hence, they must open some online WebPages or some facebook pages and helpline or booking sites so that the tourists are well aware of this new spa resort startup and can accordingly see the details and the past achievements of the hotel on their online sits and book their rooms and their spa sessions accordingly.

A referral program is a must. This will help keep the customers happy and satisfied. Offering discounts and free gifts to the customers have become very common and nowadays the Indian customers are looking forward to something new, hence the Banyan Tree can try this method by which they can give several rewards to the customers and can make them aware of all the additional services that will be given by the hotel like salons, skin treatments etc.

Keeping the historical context of the Indian tourists in mind and also the emotions of the tourists, Banyan Tree Hotels might expand their business in Kerala initially. This is likely to add up to the business expansion of the company because Kerala is one among the few Indian cities that have the highest tourist attractions every year. Not only the Indian tourist but the foreign tourists also visit this place in bulk amounts every year (Wirtz 2016). This will be an added advantage for the company because they will be able to target both the Indian as well as the foreign tourist at just one single goes. But as their major concern presently is to enter into India, Kerala indeed will be the best place to bring their business with (Sucher et al 2013). This is a land of sea beaches with beautiful temples and natural beauty all around. Adding an array of hotels with private villas and spa sessions will satisfy the need of a major sector of the Indian tourists because this particular sector of tourists always looks for a place of private accommodation and some soothing and pleasing experiences like body massage, spa etc. Apart from this, they must concentrate on two important factors that might prove to be their success mantras; they are an environmental conversation and high customer satisfaction.

Top quality input materials

Thereby, it can be said that Banyan Trees will naturally gain a good advantage if they enter into a partnership with the Kochi Marriot Hotel. This is because entering into this partnership will give Banyan Tree Hotels a detailed description of the business tactics that they need to follow in India. They will be able to know the exact needs and preference patterns of the Indian customers. As the Kochi Marriot Hotel has a spa and fitness outlet of its own, it will help the Banyan Trees to know about the local flavors that they are using in their spa products, as per the taste of the Indian customers. However, there can also be some cons of this partnership as well. Like all other partnership business, there can be temporary instances of disputes. There can be problems related to the management and operations, profit shares and many others. However, this can easily be solved by careful and matured handling from both the partners and also by entering into a proper partnership contract right during the initial stages of the business.

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