Resorts begin to rise on the road less travelled

Ditch the usual weekend hotel for a retreat tucked away near Chikhli town in Gujarat or the Choral dam in Madhya Pradesh or even the tiger-infested forests of Mukundara Hills in Rajasthan.

- Varuni Khosla

Ditch the usual weekend hotel for a retreat tucked away near Chikhli town in Gujarat or the Choral dam in Madhya Pradesh or even the tiger-infested forests of Mukundara Hills in Rajasthan. India's next wave of hospitality resort development is quietly taking shape in places most maps wouldn't show.

Boutique resorts and companies that manage properties are chasing projects just outside big metros or within half a day's drive, fuelled by a post-pandemic surge in domestic travel, investor appetite, and state-led infrastructure-building blitz. Tariffs, at times, can go as high as ₹12,000 for a day.

While most such properties are still unbranded, affiliations are in the works as hospitality majors like Radisson Hotels and Wyndham eye the opportunity, besides smaller peers such as Araiya Hotels and Resorts, Brij Hotels, Evolve Back and Tamara Resorts.

"Many of these owners are looking for properties that are, in the future, going to become branded hotels," said Navneet Nagpal, principal consultant at Gurugram-based Spectra Hospitality Services. "None of them want to develop these resorts and take the headache or risk of running them."

Branded hotel supply is around 200,000 rooms, according to hospitality consultant Hotelivate's 'Trends & Opportunities' October report. Of this, around 70,000 rooms—or roughly 39%—were in the upscale to luxury category, including resorts.