Ayodhya, the city of Lord Ram, has been a popular destination for tourists worldwide. With the construction of the Ram Mandir and the post-consecration ceremony on 22 January, Ayodhya is set to witness a transformation that will reshape the city's infrastructure, economy, and tourism industry. From a small town to a popular tourist destination, Ayodhya has come a long way. One of the sectors that will benefit the most from the construction of the temple is the hotel industry.
The state of the hotels, hospitality, and tourism in Ayodhya
In terms of tourist arrivals, the city is preparing for approximately 300,000 visitors per day as it becomes an increasingly popular destination for cultural and spiritual tourism. Many leading Indian hotel groups have been on an expansion spree in this North-Indian temple town and have worked towards this for over a year. As per reports, the city currently has nearly 1,100-1,200 rooms from 40-50 hotels. Experts believe the inventory count will rise by about 2X with 4-5 top homegrown hotel groups - 4 and 5-star brands adding over 1200 rooms. According to industry experts, Ayodhya is home to hotel development to the tune of INR 300+ crore, with most of them commencing operations after 2024. The Uttar Pradesh government is also taking steps to promote homestays around the city's outskirts.
How can technology help the hotel industry grow in Ayodhya?
Technology is going to play a significant role. Precisely speaking, technology will ensure that hotel operators see their desired value from their investment.
Understanding guest preferences and serving them better
With lakhs of tourists travelling from all over the country and globally, knowing what they want and serving them accordingly to make their stay in the temple town memorable will be hoteliers' topmost priority. Now, how will they do it? This is where technology makes the whole thing easier for them. For example, a Hotel PMS can help them understand the percentage of guests looking for early check-in or check-out facilities. Percentage of guests wanting to buy packages - say for “Ayodhya Tour”, “Darshan Packages”, “Veg-only”, etc. With all these, hotels can enhance their guests’ experience of visiting the holy town while maximizing their business opportunity.
Selling more room: With lakhs of tourists visiting the temple town, there will be intense competition among hotels to sell more rooms. As a majority of tourists will book their accommodations via Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), hotels need to strengthen their visibility on those platforms. A channel manager solution will be critical in helping them with real-time distribution, leading to more room sales via multiple OTAS. Hotels will also need technology to work with offline travel agents to get more bookings - especially group bookings. And when this is the case, they need a robust Cloud-based Hotel PMS to manage large group check-ins/outs and their service requests, etc. Moreover, they must leverage a booking engine to sell more directly via their websites. In short, they need to distribute their rates and inventories across multiple sales channels in real-time to avoid overbookings and unhappy guests.
Automating operations: Hotel groups/chains setting up shops in Ayodhya would need a cloud-based Hotel PMS with multi-property management capabilities to manage group-wide operations from their central/corporate office. It will help them manage online distribution to reservations - everything with centralised control. With automation, hotels can reduce errors and save time to meet guests' needs.
Making data-driven decisions: Real-time and multiple reports on Hotels KPIs will help hotels make better and more informed decisions while knowing what works for them and what doesn't. For example, they can make better pricing decisions to sell at best rates at the right time via the right channel to the right guest to boost revenue.
All in all, hotels need a matured and robust Cloud-based Hotel PMS along with several other operationally-critical solutions to serve guests better and drive growth.
Tourism in Ayodhya will grow and so will be the hospitality industry. As a technology partner, we are pleased to see that some of our clients, such as Suba Hotels and The Clarks Hotels & Resorts, are expanding their operations in this holy city.