March 23, 2010

Now-a-days, an interesting investment area for the global hospitality companies is the Indian hospitality industry. Many global hotel chains are now moving towards India for expanding their domain. The limited number of hotel rooms in the country is giving opportunity to these companies for big betting.

Some of the companies that plan to enter India include Thailand’s Amari, Fairmont Raffles Hotels, US-based MGM Mirage Hospitality, Golden Tulip Hotels, Europe’s Corinthia Hotels group, Movenpick Hotels and Resorts etc.

As estimated by industries, approximately 40 international hotels are there, which are likely to be operational in the country in the next 3 years. The entrance points include all the upper scale, middle-scale, economy and budget.

Amari, the Thailand based Hotels, to launch Amari India, has signed up a joint venture with Mandeep S Lamba. It plans to expand into India with the confirmation of its first property deal in Delhi by April 2010, which will be usable in 2011. Amari takes Indian metro and tier-II cities as expansion opportunities and plans to build up seven hotels and resorts within the next 5-7 years. Locations and developers have also been pinpointed in Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.

MGM is also looking ahead to launch many hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kerala, Kolkata, NCR, Rajasthan and Goa. Bringing in Bellagio, Skylofts brands and MGM Grand out of its global portfolio is also one the plan.

Accor and Four Seasons, the existing ones are also upholding presence in the Indian subcontinent. The holder of five hotels already, Accor, is now aggrandizing its network to 50 with 10,000 rooms in 15 cities by 2012.