Category — Tourism & Hospitality

When I was growing up in India, wine was almost unheard of; most Indian used the term “wine” to also mean hard liquor such as rum or whisky.  Even now, India’s largest circulation newspaper carried a story about wine shops and talks mostly about scotch and such. But wine drinking is catching up among the upwardly mobile urban consumers, male and female.  80  percent of the sales are from domestic makers, such as Grover.

California wines such as E&J Gallo, Brown & Forman, Constellation, Robert Mondavi and Kendall-Jackson are available in a limited manner, partly due to high import duties.  I also hear about wines from Argentina, Australia, Chile France and South Africa, mostly in  Mumbai and Delhi.  The Financial Times reports that Australia’s Global Wines & Spirits is offering fine wines at Rs1,200 ($30) a bottle in a joint venture with India’s Kimaya.  And to avoid import duties, Mauritius-based French company E. C. Oxenham and Cy entered the market with Nirvana Biosys to produce wines in India using imported grape juice concentrates from Italy and France.

Takeaway:  India’s habits are changing, but slowly. Products seen to be exotic can gain acceptance progress can be slow at first.

Choice Hotels International Inc. of Silver Spring-based, Maryland has agreed to acquire the remaining 60 percent ownership interest in Choice Hospitality (India) Ltd.

Choice Hospitality India has 28 properties in 21 destinations in India and another 14 properties under different stages of development.In years to come the company plans to add 20-30 new hotels each year, mostly in second tier towns, according to Choice India CEO Vilas Pawar

Takeaway: 100 percent ownership of Indian entities by US corporations is often becoming quite desirable. Growth in second tier towns in a significant factor to many new entrants. (In fact I was featured on Bloomberg TV in an interview on this very subject, click here)

Hundreds of millions of people in India will be glued to their televisions on Sunday night. But many won’t be watching the Oscars, even though musician A.R. Rahman (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) is a nominee for his score for 127 Hours. There are two competing activities that have Indians captivated.

AR Rahman at Asian Awards

February 27^th in Hollywood is already the 28^th in Asia and India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will release the Annual Budget for the Union Government, which becomes effect on April 1. With direct and indirect taxation playing such a major role in India’s economy, consumers’ well-being and business fortunes are influenced greatly by the changes in tax rates and allocations of expenditure. The final budget will be posted online at the same time as Mukherjee gives his budget speech before India’s Parliament.  Indians watch the budget news with much greater intensity than Americans watch the annual State of the Union address from the President and even the preparations for the budget speech are national news.

India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee

The second draw on television is India’s all consuming passion, the sport of cricket. The World Cup competition just started. In the city of Nagpur,in Central India, Zimbabwe will play Canada at 9:30 am Indian Standard Time, which is 8 PM on Sunday night in California. A few hours later the West Indies will square off against Ireland at New Delh’s Feroz Shah Kotla grounds. Despite the fact that these games are played during a working weekday, many Indians will receive regular SMS (text) updates on their cellphones; radios and TVs everywhere will be tuned to the right channels. Cricket will be the major topic of conversation until the final game is played on April 2 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

And who did you say won the Best Picture Award?

Takeaway: While Hollywood appears to unite the world and is certainly watched in India, there are many other forces at play in the Indian executive’s or consumer’s mind. Being aware of these forces makes it easier for you to succeed in business in India.

The pounding of pistons, the rhythmic chuff of a locomotive and storybook names such as “Fairy Queen” are all part of the allure of India’s old-fashioned steam railroad, particularly for tourist from India’s former ruler, Great Britain. UK’s IB Times reports “The presence of raw fire that fires raw power in the belly of steam locomotives attracts tourists, and the unique sound, the rocking gait, the shrill whistle, the throbbing body and an open design…are features that impart an irresistible charm to these black beauties,” quoting Ashwani Lohani of the Indian Railways who used to manage National Rail Museum in New Delhi.

“There was a time when foreign travelers would be interested to travel only by luxury tourist trains of India such as Palace on Wheels,” said Ashok Sharma at travel firm Real India Journeys. “Now there are hard-line steam railway travelers and photographers who come in huge groups every week. We refer to them as ‘narrow-gauged’ or ‘single-tracked.’” 80 foreign tourists rode the Fairy Queen during its last season of roughly 12 to 14 runs, while more than 1,200 visited the National Rail Museum from October to December last year.

The Indian Steam Railway Society, established in 1999, has earmarked 53 routes for steam heritage train journeys in India. Many of the journeys include scenic train routes such as Darjeeling, Niligiri and India’s erstwhile hill capital of Shimla, all likely to be popular with tourists.

My colleagues and clients spend way too much of their life in the air to and from India.  So when someone sent me the top 2011  predictions of travel guru Steve Glenn (ExecutiveTravel.com), I thought I should add my India twist to them

• Airlines will start charging for carry-on bags and charge extra for using a credit card; Yikes,  I am sure this won’t affect international travel, at least not this year
• American Airlines and US Airways will merge; I flew American to India twice, the seats and the absence of A/C laptop connectors was a no-no; perhaps I can use my miles to get travel on US Air next year.
• Fuel surcharges will explode;
• Domestic airfares will skyrocket this summer; Thank goodness for gotomeeting.com
• A passport will be required to graduate from college.  This will help America regain its competitive edge. Europeans are so much more cosmopolitan, we need to catch up.
• Four out of 10 hotel rooms go empty in 2011. But not in India, where you need to overpay or plan weeks in advance.
• Luxury travel will continue to get stronger
• Inflight Internet will flourish. Thank god. I hate watching movies.
• Companies will forces employees to carry-on and will not reimburse for baggage fees
• Travel agents will be back in style. I never left them, at least not for international travel.
• Airport parking prices will increase
• Car rental prices will see double-digit increases. And so I try to stay close to Metro Stations and take public transport where feasible