COVID-19 fears have returned with the emergence of the new variant omicron. Patanjali Keswani, Chairman and Managing Director at Lemon Tree Hotels shared his view on the impact travel and hospitality, are likely to witness due to the Omicron scare.

“Domestic travel has not been showing any signs of abatement. International travel – anyway was not benefitting the hotel industry since the start of COVID-19, so I am not considering that. There are no cancellations, there is an enormous surge in demand,” he said.

November, by far, has been the best month since March 2020, December is looking equally good and Q4FY22 is looking as good if not better than the quarter pre-COVID, he noted.

Also Read: Severe Omicron can clip aviation industry's wings badly: Martin Consulting

He added that pricing has improved by another 25 percent in Q3 over Q2 and demand has risen by 10-15 percent.

“The revenue in Q2 was 100 percent over the revenue in Q1 and in Q3 the revenue would be 100 percent over Q2. So it is doubling every quarter. We are at 75 percent of pre-COVID levels, Q4FY22 we will be at pre-COVID levels or maybe even above that,” he said.

Also Read:Why WHO designated Omicron a variant of concern

“If the impact of omicron is highly severe and highly transmissible and somehow comes into India then there will be an impact but if not, I am very bullish about the hotel sector for the next few months and going forward,” he mentioned.

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

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