Heritage hotels these days are big business, there is simply no doubt regarding this fact. It refers to running of hospitality establishments in castles, forts, palaces, hunting lodges, and havelis built before 1950. The architectural feature, facade, and the overall construction should bear distinctive ambience and qualities that reflect the culture and tradition of the specific area. In order to fall under this category the property architecture should remain intact as far as possible. Even if renovations, changes, extensions, or improvements in existing structure have to be undertaken, it must retain traditional construction techniques and architectural styles.
There should be a complete harmonization between the old and the new in the post building stage. Besides this, the hotels need to have distinctive features in order to fall within the Heritage category. For example, establishments built before 1950 should have at least a minimum of five rooms with 10 beds in order to operate under this label. Similarly, buildings constructed before 1935 must contain at least 15 rooms with 30 beds.
Features
Heritage hotels can be divided into three different categories namely- Heritage, Classic, Grand. The distinction between these three is based upon the available features and their number and scope increases as one goes from the mere HERITAGE classification to the GRAND levels. These hospitality establishments offer a wide range of sporting facilities to the guests including swimming pool, lawn tennis, health club, golf course, squash, and riding. Some supplementary arrangements may also be there such as those related to fishing, boating, or sailing as well as for adventure sports as trekking, ballooning, parasailing, or Safari excursions.
General features required for belonging to this category includes adequate parking area, appointed guest rooms and public areas, with a decor that involves the traditional. Other than this, numerous other features are mostly in keeping with those required for five-star or luxury category of hotels.
Food fit for a King!
While traditional food is highly desirable in a heritage setting one cannot deny the demand of global cuisine to keep the worldwide guests happy at the Heritage hotels. So, besides the rich, delicious, and sumptuous local flavor, guests at these places can also enjoy continental cuisine presented in high standard glassware, crockery, and cutlery. It is not only a gastronomic but also a visual extravaganza in all regards.
Reasons for High Popularity
What makes Heritage Tourism so popular? It is big business these days because visitors especially foreigners don't want to miss the chance of experiencing the culture and tradition of India from close range. Presence of a luxurious ambience surely acts as a big incentive, a chance to live life KING-SIZE literally. This is simply not possible any other way. Added to this is the increasing inclination of second generation of royal families who are realizing this immense potential of converting their family asset into productive business. They don't need to invest much in infrastructure and decor in most scenarios. Naturally, this makes everything more lucrative.
With both the management and the guests happy with the arrangement, number of takers for Heritage hotels is increasing constantly. Certainly, Heritage Hotels are the Aces in Indian Tourism.
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