'We Are Capable of Providing End-to-end MICE Solutions'

STERLING HOLIDAY Resorts Limited, India’s Leisure Hospitality Company, has opened its newest beach resort in Goa called ‘La Vida Varca’. The name La Vida Varca refers to ‘The Varca Life’ in Portuguese. This resort is Sterling Holidays' third property in Goa, after Villagio in south Goa and Club Estadia in the north. Sterling Holidays now has a network of 32 resorts across the country.

BW Hotelier spoke to Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director-Sterling Holidays Resorts, “today’s traveler is looking for immersive experiences and new and interesting ways to discover destinations. Sterling is now gearing up to meet these requirements and we are trying to deliver experiences that would lead to discoveries. These experiences would be in the space of food, adventure, culture and so on. This is what would truly set us apart from competition,” he said.

According to Ramanathan, Sterling Resorts has a mixed model that caters to vacation ownership members, leisure travelers and the MICE segment. “Our resorts offer facilities like state-of-the-art conference rooms with complete banqueting facilities as well as a range of group experiences like team building activities, adventure activities etc. All these make our resorts unique and preferred destinations for MICE events”.

Adding to this he said, “we are capable of providing end-to-end MICE solutions right from airport transfers to accommodation, gala dinners to evening entertainment and sightseeing to just about anything else the corporate clients may need to make their MICE event a smashing success.”

Speaking about the expansion plan Ramanathan expressed “In FY18, the company is expecting to add three to four properties with an additional 200-300 rooms, taking their total resort count to 35-36. These properties are likely to be in scenic locations like Wayanad in Kerala, Mount Abu in Rajasthan and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh.”

“India is going to be a big market for the company. However, going forward we may look at foraying into international destinations, and our expansion route would be to open in Indians-led holiday destinations like South and South East Asia,” he concluded.