Singapore, April 07, 2016: Sustained growth in India’s corporate travel industry has spurred global hotel solutions provider, HRS, to launch an office in Mumbai – its first in the country. With an existing base of over 4,000 major hotel chains and independent hotel properties in India, this new step enables HRS to better support the Indian business community as well as multinational corporate customers.
Leading the development efforts is Santosh Kumar, Director of Corporate Solutions for HRS in India, who brings deep experience in business and leisure travel across the region. Commenting on the expansion, Santosh said, “The business travel landscape is at a tremendously exciting point in India, with a growing focus on the governmental level to include tourism infrastructure as a cornerstone of public policy. There is much to learn – the opportunities and challenges are distinctive – but we believe that having a local office will facilitate more focused work, and we are investing in building a strong local team.”
India is already the 10th largest business travel market globally, and the Global Business Travel Association expects a compound annual growth rate of 11.5 per cent until 2019. Corporate spending is also forecast to increase – more than three quarters of Indian firms predict a significant rise in their travel and expenditure budgets in 2016, according to East & Partners Asia’s Asia Corporate T&E Index.
HRS is uniquely positioned to help companies optimize their travel expenditure. With a fully transparent business model that provides content from over 300,000 hotels across 190 countries, HRS continues to generate economies of scale that allow customers to gain greater value and efficiency from their hotel spend.
“India is one of the world’s most dynamic economies, and it is thrilling to see our hotel solutions coming to market on a global scale and to such a broad corporate client base,” says Todd Arthur, Managing Director APAC for HRS. “Operating on the strength of our global brand and expertise, we continue to provide a full spectrum of end-to-end solutions comprising of sourcing, searching, booking and business intelligence through advanced reporting. We are looking forward to improving the sourcing, search and booking experiences for business travelers in India, and growing our brand in the region.”
HRS recently signed an exclusive partnership with the Oberoi Group, one of India’s most prestigious hospitality groups. The Oberoi Group has a presence in six countries under the luxury ‘Oberoi’ and five-star ‘Trident’ brands, synonymous the world over with providing the right blend of service, luxury and quiet efficiency. HRS’ strategic investments in India will ensure it continues to offer the widest choice of hotel content in the market.
In October 2015, HRS reached the significant milestone of becoming the world’s largest provider of hotel content to global distribution systems (GDSs), with more than five million bookable rooms. As the only provider to integrate hotel content across all seven major GDSs (Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan, Apollo, Galileo, Abacus, and Travelsky), it provides corporate customers and travel management companies with the dual benefits of a broader choice of hotels and additional cost savings.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
