Delhi's meeting choices

India's capital Delhi is an obvious destination for meetings and incentive visitors to the country and as a gateway to explore the rest of the subcontinent. Exotic attraction Ruchika Mehta, marketing communications manager of the Shangri-La New Delhi, says: "Delhi has an impressive variety of history and culture as it offers cultural and heritage sites, the exotic and mystical, excellent facilities that can be combined as pre- and postconference tours. "The city possesses an amazing wealth of sights and sounds, tastes and textures. Delhi as a destination offers a backdrop of unmatched beauty for a business meeting." Mehta stresses that combined with the exotic ambiance, Delhi is also a city with all the sophistication and facilities that modern business meetings demand. Her property is a relatively new entrant to the Delhi scene. "Delhi's image as a conference destination is also projected through the chains of hotels, providing international standards in facilities and services," she says. "It has exclusive business hotels and exotic resorts with meeting rooms of distinction, spacious convention facilities, modern business centres and a wide range of conference facilities." One dramatic piece of evidence to show how quickly India is opening up to foreign investment is in the hotel sector itself. For many years, Indian hotel groups such as Oberoi and Taj dominated the high-end segments of the market. Recently though, the major international brands have sought to expand across the country, groups such as Hyatt, Marriott, Accor and so on are all looking at widening their presence in the country. Larry Malarkar, head of sales and marketing for hotels and resorts in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, says of the city's meetings and incentives market: "Delhi has reasonable carrying capacity from most major feeder markets. It is possible to get space and reasonable rates for weekend meetings even in the October to March high season. "There is sufficient local bus and car transport available as well as English-language guides, although Far Eastern language guides are more difficult." Team talents "Starwood has two properties in Delhi at the moment. The two current properties are the ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel and Towers and the Le Meridien, New Delhi. The Le Meridien is within walking distance of Delhi's traditional heart — Connaught Place — and the ITC Maurya Sheraton is in the diplomatic enclave," he says. "Our meetings and incentive programmes are handled very professionally. Events organised by our teams are imaginative, unique to India and entertaining." Starwood also plans to open The Westin New Delhi, Gurgaon in December 2007. India generally has lagged behind its potential as a meetings and incentives destination and Delhi is no exception. However, as the country opens up and modernises, the city is certain to appear more regularly on the agendas of planners and organisers.