A year after suffering terrorist attacks at Mumbai’s iconic Taj Mahal Hotel, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is making a strong comeback. After bolstering security at the property and launching an extensive and ongoing refurbishment of the Palace Wing, which was the most severely damaged section of the hotel, the Mumbai-based company has unveiled a newly renovated U.S. flagship hotel, The Pierre in New York, launched the new Vivanta brand, and expanded The Gateway brand. Additionally, the hotel group announced two new properties that are soon to join the Taj brand’s portfolio. “The overall sentiment of loyal guests is that they want to come back and stay with us despite what happened, and we take that as a very clear sign of support of and solidarity with Taj as well as, perhaps, a message of defiance against acts such as these,” says Mr. Ajoy Misra, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

One of the most high-profile guests to stay at the Taj Mahal Hotel since the attacks was U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made her first visit to India as America’s chief diplomat this summer. Misra explains that one of Mrs. Clinton’s first activities was to meet with the hotel’s general manager and staff. “She compared New York City and Mumbai as two great cities that are cultural and financial hubs that have also bounced back after seeing acts of terror,” he notes.

Another attribute that New York City shares with Mumbai is the presence of a Taj Hotel. The Pierre, on Fifth Avenue, was acquired by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces in 2005, and this past September it completed a $100 million redesign that included a makeover of all guestroom and bath interiors, as well as a new bar called Two E; a new brasserie-style restaurant, Le Caprice; a new reception area; and new executive boardrooms. Eleven one- and two-bedroom Grand Suites are a highlight of the multimillion-dollar spend; Murano glass chandeliers, hand-knotted carpets and Sony home theater systems are complemented by subtle reminders of Taj’s Indian heritage, including contemporary artwork by noted and emerging Indian artists, selected by fine arts consultant Mortimer Chatterjee.

The most prestigious of these luxe lairs is the Tata Suite, which is the hotel’s presidential suite, named for the parent company of Taj Hotels, Eight O’Clock Coffee and Jaguar Land Rover. Le Caprice is also the restaurant’s first location outside of the U.K., although the venue at The Pierre will offer a specially designed New York menu in a redecorated dining room. To raise travelers’ awareness of the hotel’s new 21st-century look, Taj Hotels rolled out an ad campaign called “Pierre, Again.” “We had a soft opening on the first of June and business has been building up ever since,” says Misra. “Today, we’re very happy to see that the hotel is nearly full and we’re encouraged by the way it’s been received by the public.”

Next to enter the market is the 166-room Taj Cape Town, which will open in December in South Africa’s second-largest city. The hotel will make its home in two historic buildings: the original South African Reserve Bank and the old BOE building, formerly the Temple Chambers, built in 1890. Suites, guestrooms and residences with city views and Table Mountain vistas will be situated in seventeen new stories. Making it one of the first luxury hotels that’s not on the city’s waterfront, the Taj resides in downtown Cape Town, in the Government Avenue district, the same neighborhood as the national and provincial parliaments, as well as the 350-year-old Company Gardens from St George’s Cathedral, the crafts of St George’s Mall and Greenmarket Square. In addition to a Taj Club Floor, the hotel will boast 11 room categories, among which will be a two-bedroom, split-level presidential suite. The first floor of the BOE building is where meeting rooms are to be found, and one of the Taj Cape Town’s two restaurants will be a tri-level venue that will showcase an open-plan show kitchen, a floor-to-ceiling wine wall and full-length glass sliding doors giving uninhibited views of the pedestrian artery St George’s Mall. On the ground floor, halls of the Reserve Bank have been restored to house the Bombay Brasserie, Taj’s own Indian fine-dining restaurant that the company originated in London. Another F&B option will be a seafood and champagne bar.

Following Taj’s South Africa debut, the company will unveil a new Palace property in the spring of 2010. The Falaknuma Palace, in Hyderabad, is set to become a 60-room hotel where the original suite of the Nizam, the sovereign of the state of Hyderabad, will be preserved as will the 101 Dining Room and the original Mughal, Rajasthani and Japanese gardens created by the Nizam.

Falaknuma Palace, meaning the “heavenly abode,” is a blend of Italian and Tudor architecture. The Palace has priceless collections of Belgian-made Osler chandeliers, English furniture, stained-glass windows, leather-upholstered rosewood chairs, gold-and-crystal tables, ivory figurines and an Italian white-marble fountain at the entrance. The library has a walnut carved roof, which is a replica of that in Windsor Castle. This palatial hotel will be another example of Taj’s continual preservation and restoration, in terms of both the architecture and interior design of India’s royal palaces.

When it opens, Falaknuma Palace will join the ranks of Rambagh Palace, Jaipur; Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur; and Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur; in the Taj Luxury Hotels’ segment. However, all of the palace properties are located in western India with the exception of Falaknuma Palace, which is in the central part of the country. “We own and run Maharaja palaces and we believe that this is what differentiates Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces from any other brand,” Misra points out. “We pioneered this concept in the early 1970s when we took over the Taj Lake Palace.”

But the executives at Taj don’t rest on the laurels of their long-time successes. Two years ago, Taj Safaris (www.tajsafaris.com)  rolled out the first two of what is today a circuit of four tiger safari lodges. Mahua Kothi, Baghvan, Pashan Garh and Banjaar Tola are all located in Madhya Pradesh, the country’s central state, and are operated in conjunction with ecotourism company and safari operator &Beyond (www.andbeyond.com),  which professionally trains the lodges’ naturalists. “With the opening of these two additional lodges, we believe we now have a complete tiger circuit in central India,” attests Misra.

Each lodge is approximately two hours from another lodge, so travelers can cover all four during a single visit to India or just two. Banjaar Tola consists of two riverine camps, each containing nine tented suites. Each suite, set on raised structures, features its own intimate private deck overlooking the river, plus a discreetly positioned swimming pool.

In complete contrast to Banjaar Tola, Pashan Garh comprises 12 private stone cottages huddled atop a small hill, each with views over the forest and nearby water hole, which has been host to numerous predators and resident antelope sightings. Each of the twelve jungle village huts at Mahua Kothi is accessed through private courtyards with shaded seating and traditional mud floors. The twelve stand-alone suites of Baghvan are each made up of two covered interlinked structures with the guest bath housed in one construction, a covered rooftop platform complete with a bed, mosquito net and overhead fan. Guests preferring to sleep indoors will find a completely enclosed guestroom in the structure opposite the bathroom. “They’ve been very well received, but as they’re positioned at the top end, the current recession has obviously slowed demand, although we are seeing that it’s beginning to bounce back.”

However, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is also expanding into other segments of the hospitality industry beyond luxury. Taj’s Vivanta competes in the “upper-upscale segment,” while the upscale full-service brand Gateway Hotels recently announced a 125-room property on a 16-acre location in the city of Shirdi.

As Misra tell it, “Gateway is very consistent and is about catering to the new up-and-coming customer of today who will become a Vivanta customer tomorrow and a Taj customer the day after.” Gateway hotels are equipped with a single all-day dining outlet and a bar. Vivanta properties, the most recent of which is in the Maldives, boasts an additional specialty restaurant as well as a Jiva Spa, Taj’s own spa brand. The Jiva Spa facilities available at Vivanta properties are a “light” version of the Jiva Grand facilities found in luxury Taj Hotels. Jiva Grand Spas are larger in terms of square footage and the number of treatment rooms offered, and they feature signature treatments, many of which are based on therapies enjoyed by the royal Maharaja.

“While the Taj group has grown opportunistically for the past three-and-a-half decades, we have reached the point where we would like to have a proper architecture of brands for the portfolio of hotels that we have been acquiring and branding over the years,” says Misra.

For more information 800-743-7734 | www.tajhotels.com

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