Victor Albuquerque, chairman and managing director, Alcon Victor Group not only used the slack period during the ongoing pandemic for up-grading his properties dedicated to tourism, but also changed their character according to the shift in global conditions. In an exclusive interview with Ramnath N Pai Raikar, he speaks about the future plans for his group
The ongoing corona pandemic has hit hard the tourism industry in the state, which is the backbone of the state’s economy, especially after the closure of the mining activities. The employers in this sector are helpless with international chartered flights yet to arrive in the state, even though the tourist season has already started, while many of the employees have either been sacked or find their salaries slashed drastically.
Victor Albuquerque, the chairman and managing director of the Alcon Victor group is however an out-of-the-box thinker and innovator, who has used the spare time available with his workforce to upgrade his tourism related properties and get ready to receive the tourists when the health-related calamity dies out. “I believe in turning the adversities into opportunities,” he said.
Albuquerque, who is also the member of the Goa chapter of the Hotel Association of India, said that Devaaya, the Ayurveda and Nature Cure Centre run by his group on the Divar Island suddenly found itself bereft of all the tourists visiting it from several western countries.
“The number of visitors to Devaaya turned zero as soon as the pandemic began,” he informed, pointing out that 95 per cent of the visitors to the wellness retreat were foreigners from countries like Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and so on, who used to stay between 7 and 35 days at the resort.
“In fact, my biggest asset is my workforce, with around 1,700 employees on my payroll working at various properties of the group dedicated to tourism,” Albuquerque revealed, stating that he did not sack his employees, but used their skills during the up-gradation of the properties.
“The moment we knew that the international visitors to the wellness resort weren’t coming, we took an overnight decision to maintain a part of this resort as a wellness resort while converting the other section into a luxury resort with the availability of quality non-vegetarian food including choicest dishes prepared with the fresh fish from the nearby manos, as well as beverages,” he added, maintaining that the luxury resort will now also have some suites and would be targeted to attract the high-end domestic tourists, which are plenty in India.
The wellness resort part however will be maintained with its kitchen serving organic vegetarian food, as also this section would have ayurveda doctors, naturopaths and Yoga masters. There would not be any compromise on this section of the resort.
Albuquerque also maintained that his group has upgraded the particular property to hold weddings. “We have decided to take advantage of the fact that Goa is turning out to be a popular wedding destination, especially with Jain, Gujarati and Marwari communities rushing to celebrating weddings in their families,” he stated, informing that the resort wants to rope in Munna Maharaj, the premium class wedding caterer in India, including his speciality of using silverware for serving food and the customised menus.
The expensive weddings, it is expected, would put large amount of money into circulation and pump it into the system, during the financially-weak pandemic situation.
Speaking further, Albuquerque said that his Dona Sylvia Beach Resort, in South Goa has also undergone up-gradation through redevelopment. “We are constructing a fabulous new conference hall at this beach resort, having a capacity of 800 people, so that conferences and meetings of multinational companies could take place in this hall,” he stated, pointing out that the same would be ready by March 2021.
The conference hall has been designed by the leading architect, Niteen Parulekar, it was informed.
The chairman and managing director of the Alcon Victor Group also informed that the six months of the pandemic were similarly utilised for the up-gradation of the group’s Candolim-based hotel, Radisson Goa. “We will never get such an opportunity in our lifetime, for redevelopment of our tourism properties as they are never fully closed and always running,” he observed.
“Furthermore, the Victor Hospital in Margao has also been running well now,” Albuquerque stated, adding that a 22-bedded special, completely sealed COVID-19 ward has been set up in the hospital. “There has been a heavy demand for these beds,” he mentioned, pointing out that the adjacent Viva Hotel, which is connected to the Victor Hospital by way of a bridge and was shut down for long, has now been converted as a residential hotel for government doctors and nurses working at the ESI/ COVID-19 hospital at Margao.
It was also informed that once the number of COVID-19 patients admitted in the hospital starts decreasing, the hospital would have a post-COVID care facility, which would also admit asymptomatic patients as well as those with mild symptoms.
In addition, the hospital will have the facility of the RT-PCR test, which has 95 per cent accuracy, and a Roche company machine has been set up for the purpose.
On a parting note, Albuquerque mentioned that he would be handing over the reins of his group to the next generation by the end of this year. “I want to write a memoir about my professional life, the ups and downs in my business, and at the end of the line what I have achieved, which may be helpful to many hardworking youth, who want to come up in life,” he concluded.
