Oriental Hotels, a part of the Taj Group is set on expanding its foothold in South India by setting up two hotels in two cities in the South and thus expanding the number of rooms.
Raymond Bickson, MD and CEO, Indian Hotels Company announced at a press conference, "We have extensive plans to expand Oriental's footprint across the southern region over the five-six years. The company has land banks in places like Mysore, Sriperumbudur (near Chennai), Gundu Island (Kochi), Coonoor and Bengaluru."
With immediate effect, Oriental Hotels will set up hotels at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Bangalore (Bengaluru) in Karnataka at an estimated investment of Rs. 160 crore. Thus the number of rooms available with the group in South India will be raised to 1,250 rooms from 850 rooms by 2012.
The group has already invested earlier an amount of Rs. 178 crore on the upgradation and renovation of its existing hotels. And with its acquired bank lands, the company will announce its other plans soon.
With the hospitality and tourism sector growing constantly, the average occupancy ratio of Oriental Hotels has increased from 55 % to 70 %. According to the Finance Director of the group, most of the growth is expected to come from within the country only.
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