Cross Hotels & Resorts eyes 40 pc growth in Indian footfall in 2025

Andrew Hartley

What brings you to India?

We are here for our India Roadshow, one of our key events. So we are basically going to be in New Delhi, then Mumbai and also Bengaluru.

Meeting key partners while we are here to really try to grow even further our Indian business which already is one of our top five markets and we are expecting to see around a 40 pc growth this year in Indian business. So we are looking forward to continuing success and collaboration with the key partners.

How was 2024 for cross hotels in terms of the Indian market?

2024 was exceptional. We actually saw around about a 275 pc increase in our business.

We just kept growing and that was throughout Thailand, in our hotels predominantly in Chiang Mai, in Bangkok and also Pattaya and then throughout Bali as well. We really saw incredible growth and we are expecting to see that growth continue into 2025.

With properties in various locations, which one has proven to be the most popular among Indian travellers?

Well, we certainly know that there is an amazing affinity to Bali. So that cultural connection is very strong.

Probably if I had to pick one as a kind of favourite amongst many of our Indian customers, it would actually be our Cross Vibe in Kuta, which is a great destination for many Indian travellers. They love that whole kind of vibrant part of Bali. But we then see throughout Bali, many hotels from Ubud to Seminyak to Legian, are full of many of our Indian guests. Then, of course, people have to come to Bangkok. Being an amazing city, a lot of vibrant hotels, all very well connected.

They also enjoy Chiang Mai, where we have an amazing vegan retreat. We have a resort, which is all vegan, the Away Chiang Mai Thapae.

We just doubled the size of our inventory. So we added an additional 30 suites, plus an additional swimming pool, an amazing restaurant there as well, and a great spa. So it allows our guests, particularly if they want 100 pc assurance of the food, they can get that in that retreat wherever they go.

Then Pattaya, of course, is a very popular destination. Many of our travellers go there from India, and we have got three hotels.

So from the Cross in Pratamnak, which is like an exclusive area on the hill of Pattaya, and then we actually have an old pool villa product, which is quite rare for Pattaya, in our Oceanphere hotel, as well as also Cross Vibe Seaphere, which is a rooms product, very close there. Bali would be top, and then Thailand.

Which Indian cities are the biggest source markets for Cross Hotels?

Really the key cities, the metro cities. So we see a lot of business from Mumbai, from Delhi, and of course, Bengaluru. Wherever you have a connection in terms of flights, we see a great amount of business come into our hotels.

Cross Hotels & Resorts features 6 distinct brands; Cross, Cross Vibe, Away, Lumen, Kaura, and Cross Collection

What is the average duration of stay of Indian travellers at your properties?

It very much would depend on destination. At many of our hotels, say in Bali, you have the chance to stay a week or even more. It is very easy to do that. Many people who go to Chiang Mai will at least stay three nights with us.

Then for some of our Bangkok hotels, it might be a short shopping break. So they might just do two nights or three nights with us. So it depends by destination.

How important are MICE and weddings for you?

MICE is an area that we are actually seeing a big growth. We have a lot of facilities already have, great opportunities for meeting space. We are just about to open our largest meeting space in Bangkok, basically, we are going to open a Cross Vibe in Srinakarin. We have a meeting space for up to 300 persons which will be our biggest in Bangkok.

Destination weddings have always been important. We have got several of our hotels have great opportunities for destination weddings.

We certainly cannot quite do the 1,000 or 500 guests, but we have a wonderful cross in Chiang Mai Riverside, which has a dedicated venue just overlooking the Ping River.

Then we have an old pool villa product, Cross Bali Breakers, which has its own wedding chapel, which can again do a full takeover. Many of our hotels offer great opportunities for takeover destination weddings.

Are there any specific destinations you plan to focus on for promoting Cross Hotels in India?

Well, all of them are really key because all of them have an attraction to the Indian market. We will also look to explore new destinations in the future. So we will be opening new hotels very soon in the future in Vietnam and also in Japan.

Then we will have Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan as our four key countries that we will be offering, which we know are very attractive for Indian travellers.

What promotional strategies do you have in place for the Indian market in 2025?

For us, it is about being very much close partners and true partners with those people, making sure that we give them access to the very best rates. They are very much a quick turnaround when it comes to being responsive to those. So, of course, our local team here is really important for that, to make sure that we are always available on WhatsApp.

We can make sure that we tailor make everything. So it is about personalised experience.

We keep expanding what we do here. We are always looking to engage, whether that is through social media. We work with a lot of key influencers within India so they can give a true reflection. A lot of FAM trips, a lot of engagements, bringing people from India to experience our resorts.

That gives them a way of giving an authentic voice to the Indian market and saying what we can do.

What are your expansion plans for this year?

So two really important openings coming soon, both in Bangkok. In May, the Cross-Vibe Srinakarin, which is very well connected on the MRT line.

Then we will also have a new Away Sukhumvit, which is right in the middle of Bangkok. It will be around a 10-minute walk from the M-Sphere shopping destination. So those are very imminent, exciting properties opening up in May this year.