Eastern India’s Hotel Growth Needs Patience, Not Replication: Summit Hotels’ Sumit Mitruka At Hospitality Conclave 2026

The need for slower, ecosystem-led hospitality growth in Eastern and North-Eastern India emerged as a key takeaway at the Hospitality & Tourism Conclave 2026, held on 16–17 January at ITC Fortune Select, Siliguri. Industry leaders repeatedly flagged that replicating metro-driven hotel expansion models has led to capital stress and inconsistent performance in emerging destinations.

Summit Hotels & Resorts played a central role in shaping these discussions through its Founder & CEO, Sumit Mitruka, who also serves as Chairman of the Hospitality & Tourism Committee at the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Mitruka moderated and participated in multiple sessions focused on brand scalability, owner profitability and distribution economics. The conclave also witnessed hotel signings and investment commitments estimated at over ₹1,000 crore between hospitality brands and hotel owners across Eastern India.

During the panel titled “From the East to the Nation: Building Scalable, Iconic Hospitality Brands,” Mitruka steered the conversation towards the risks of premature expansion. Panellists discussed how regional brands often face margin erosion when growth is driven by speed rather than operational readiness. The session highlighted that in many Eastern markets, demand follows rather than precedes supply quality, requiring longer investment horizons and tighter cost discipline.

Ownership, Distribution And Profitability Pressures

Mitruka also spoke during the panel “Owning the Guest: Direct Revenue, Digital Funnels & Profitability,” where he noted the increasing pressure on hotel owners to rebalance their reliance on OTAs. The discussion focused on how mid-scale and leisure hotels must prioritise integrated technology, pricing control and guest data ownership to protect margins, particularly in destinations with seasonal demand.

Across sessions moderated by Mitruka, a recurring theme was that hospitality growth in the East is constrained less by tourism potential than by fragmented ecosystems, including inconsistent infrastructure rollout, limited institutional capital, and misaligned brand-owner expectations.

Summit Hotels & Resorts’ role at the conclave reflected its positioning as an operator deeply embedded in Eastern and North-Eastern India, using operational experience to shape industry dialogue rather than promote expansion narratives. The conclave attracted hotel owners, developers, operators and technology providers, with discussions centred on ROI realism, regional brand identity and long-term sustainability.

The conclave brought together senior voices from across India’s hospitality ecosystem, including Harshavardhan Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group, Vikram Challur of MakeMyTrip, Pooja Ray of Mayfair Hotels & Resorts, Davashish Srivastava of Radisson Hotel Group, Vilas Pawar of Lemon Tree Hotels, Nikhil Shah of Colliers, Santosh Kutty of Mahindra Holidays, Arpit Pant of Ascott, Samarth Agarwal of Fortune Park Hotels, Bjorn DeNiese of Mayfair Elixir Hotels & Resorts, Tarun Goyal of Simplotel, Sankalp Goel of Djubo, Sibasish Misra of BookingJini, Ritwik Khare of Elivaas, Pranav Dangi of The Hosteller, Anirudh Kandpal of The Postcard Hotel and Avijit Arya of Internet Moguls, among others. Their participation underscored the conclave’s focus on operational realism, capital discipline and sustainable growth models for Eastern and North-Eastern India.

The Hospitality & Tourism Conclave 2026 reinforced Siliguri’s emergence as a serious platform for national hospitality debates, particularly around underrepresented markets in Eastern India.