IN CONVERSATION -Ashok Khanna, MD, Ananda and Ista.

Ravi Teja Sharma talks to its managing director, Ashok Khanna, about Ananda and its new brand, Ista.

IHHR set a benchmark with Ananda in the Himalayas. What’s next?

We believe that when you reach a certain level, be it in luxury, you must upgrade. And that’s what we’ve set out to do. Ananda is a health and wellness destination and we are now expanding this brand to Mauritius, Maldives and Jaipur.

The Ananda in Mauritius will have a destination spa and will be even more luxurious than the Ananda in the Himalayas. All the 55 rooms here will face the sea and each guest will get personalised attention.

Beyond Ananda, we have launched our Ista brand, which will comprise 5-star deluxe hotels in business destinations across India, and will not necessarily feature health and wellness. Like Ananda, the Ista city hotels will reflect a resort feel.

One Ista opened this May in Bangalore, and another one will start operations early this September in Hyderabad. Besides, there are three more under construction in Ahmedabad, Pune and Amritsar and we are also considering Ista properties in Coimbatore, Nagpur, Noida and Navi Mumbai.

We are also planning another Ista in Bangalore. A 200-plus room Ista alongside a 75 room Ananda is also under planning in Delhi, on one large piece of land, negotiations for which are on at the moment.

Within the Ista brand will be Ista Resorts, which we are planning in Puri and Kumarakom on 40-50 acres of land. These will be low-rise ground covered properties with villas, complete with private pools, large spa and outside activities.

What was the need to add another brand offering?

We strongly felt this need to mix our hotel offerings for a better exposure. More importantly, this is in keeping with our strategy to have only limited number of Ananda properties. For, if there are more, they will start taking away business from each other.

Diversified offerings also mean more secure operations. After most world mishaps, leisure business is the first to get hit. It wasn’t a smooth start for us when we came up with Ananda in the Himalayas in 1999.

The first few years were very troublesome, what with the Kargil War, plague, SARS, and then 9/11. During that period, we had very little international business and we survived with mostly domestic clientele. And that’s how it should ideally be. A mix of business and leisure properties puts a company on a surer footing.

What kind of investment is the company making?

Over the next five years, we plan to invest in excess of Rs 700 crore in our properties. Ananda hotels in Mauritius and Maldives, the new Ista in Bangalore, the Ista and Ananda in Delhi and the Ista Resort in Kumarakom will all be management contracts, though they’ll remain greenfield, built-to-suit properties.

The Ananda in Jaipur will be a 75-room property spread over 40 acres and will cost us over Rs 140 crore to build.

Earlier, we sold a 15 per cent equity stake to investment firm Morgan Stanley for Rs 175 crore, so we have enough funds for our expansion activities. Also, we are planning to go for an IPO by 2009-10.

The company is also picking up land in cities like Chandigarh, Mysore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagpur for future expansion.

How many properties are you targetting?

We should touch at least 15 properties in the next five years.

Considering that tourism is moving to newer parts of India, would IHHR be interested in properties in emerging destinations?

Tourism is picking up in Gujarat, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and even in parts of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The issue till now has been easy access. We are looking at all these places as infrastructure develops. Having an airport an hour away from our resorts would be ideal, as high-end clients are generally not comfortable travelling more than one hour by road.

What about hospitality concepts in India — how are these changing?

Though a lot of international brands are entering the Indian market, they are not bringing in anything fresh. The concepts that they are bringing in have already been flogged overseas.

In reality, it is the smaller companies, international and local, which will bring in newer innovative products into the market. And these companies include Banyan tree, Soneva Fushi and us.

What are the other areas of hospitality that the company is working in?

We are going to unveil a large spa institute in Hyderabad soon. This will be one of its kind in the world and will have ayurveda and yoga under one roof, offering an international curriculum and certification. There is a huge demand for certified therapists in the market.

Right now, most therapists working in India are without any kind of certification. So, we are setting up a management institute in Hyderabad itself to meet our internal demand for managers for the 15 hotels in the pipeline.