Sterling Holiday Resorts Unveils New Brand Strategy

RAMESH RAMANATHAN returned to Sterling Holiday Resorts as its Managing Director in 2011 – having served as the President for 20 years earlier – to scale up the brand and open up to a bigger market. “People are now looking for immersive holidays and want to discover new places with theme-based holidays - cycling, food, river, etc, to name a few. We decided to cater to the new-age market where experiencing holidays and destinations can become better for our guests. Hence, we decided to bring about some visible changes to the brand also,” says Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director, Sterling Holiday Resorts. Since his joining, he has added about 400 rooms to the already existing 1,200 rooms.

Sterling Holiday Resorts re-launched its identity with a new brand logo as well as changing the nature of business from a vacation ownership company to a genuine holiday company. “Consumer today wants holiday experiences that go beyond great rooms, outstanding location and wonderful service, and that is what we provide,” he said in an event unveiling the new brand and strategies.

Ramanathan also stated that, “Sterling is now poised to rapidly establish itself as an experience and discovery led holiday brand and grow into a leadership position in the holiday industry. The new brand logo is more ‘youthful, vibrant and contemporary with key logo colour, Purple, aligning with the brand promise of ‘discoveries and experiences.”

Pumping an investment of ₹250 crore in refurbishing its rooms and best in class standard, the brand plans to focus on providing local experiences at all its destinations in line with their “PEP” (People Experience and Places) concept.

With their new resorts in Karwar in Karnataka; Anaikatti in Tamil Nadu; Dindi on the banks of the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh; Daman; Sariska, Wayanad added this year along with the soon-to-be-launched – Panchgani, Mount Abu, Gangtok, Udaipur, Coorg, Sterling now has 33 resorts with 2,200 rooms with 60% owned by the company itself. “The occupancy has gone up from 27 per cent to 70 per cent while members have gone up from 60,000 to 85,000,” added Ramanathan.

Sterling Holiday Resorts which has a mix of owned and leased properties will explore more management contracts with owners to scale up their footprint, he said. The target is to reach at least double the size of the inventory and triple the revenues over the next five years.

Vaishali Dar

BW Reporters Vaishali Dar is a Senior Associate Editor with BW Businessworld and Editorial Head with BW Disrupt. She writes on corporates, start-ups, hospitality and travel