Hotel Leela Venture Ltd plans to spend 22 billion rupees over one and a half years to set up three new hotels in India, the company's CFO said on Thursday, adding that the hotels will be set up in Udaipur, Chennai and New Delhi.
The company will invest about 11 billion rupees on the Delhi property, which is scheduled to be ready for an opening by August 2010, just ahead of the Commonwealth Games. It has currently only two business properties in Mumbai and Bangalore and two leisure resort properties on the beaches of Goa and Kovalam.
According to another report in the Business Standard, the Hilton family of hotels will have 50 hotels in India by 2015. Twenty of these hotels are in various stages of development, with three (in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore) slated to open in 2009. These will be business and mid-market hotels and will flash brands like Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton.
The Carlson group plans to open 52 new hotels across the country with more than 6,000 rooms. K B Kachru, executive vice-president (South Asia) Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Asia Pacific, informed ET. The US-based $30 billion group has four different hotel brands-Country Inns & Suites, Park (Inn, Plaza), Radisson and Regent and is looking at the Indian market aggressively.
Despite the recession stinging the realtors like DLF and Parsvnath who entered the Hospitality sector at its boom period and now face the financial crunch thus slowing down their expansion, the Rs.1.4 Rs. billion real estate JMD Group has forayed into the hotel business in India by roping in the US-based hospitality group Hilton Hotels' Doubletree brand. The Delhi-based company will reportedly spend around Rs 1.5 billion over the next two years to establish three hotels.
US hospitality major, Marriott International plans to triple its hotel portfolio in India by 2012 to cash in on the growing business and leisure travel in the country, says another report. The company will open seven hotels across the country in 2009 to tap growth in one of the world's fastest-growing economies, top officials said.
DelWine had recently featured the expansion plans for Lemon Tree hotels, which had not been derailed but temporarily slowed down.
One question all the NRIs and PIOs on their annual visit to the shrine that is India, kept on asking, was 'where is the recession in India? We don't see it anywhere.' One had only to point them to the empty hotel lobbies which normally are buzzing with activity at this time of the year. The occupancy is still less than 50% though many PR releases by some hotels admit to only 30% drop. The room tariffs have come down by 30-50% while some admit to a 10-15% fall only.
The industry being cyclical in nature will surely bounce back. This will auger well for the wine industry which depends heavily in the room occupancy and footfalls in the restaurants. The expansion plans would be welcome by the producers and importers alike.
Subhash Arora
January 16, 2009
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