Indian Hotels eyes expansion in east

Kolkata: Indian Hotels Co that owns the Taj, Vivanta, Ginger and other hospitality brands, is set to expand its presence in the east from 1,000 rooms in 10 properties to 2,400 rooms across 23 properties in the next four years. This will see the eastern region’s contribution to the IHCL revenue go up from 10% now to 15% after the properties are operational.
The Taj brand will lead the growth drive with addition of six properties, up from the sole Taj Bengal in Kolkata at present. While three of them will be in Bengal: two in Kolkata and one in Darjeeling’s Kurseong, the others will be in Patna, Puri and Gangtok.
Of the six, five properties are being developed by the Ambuja Neotia group with which IHCL signed the management contract for the Kolkata and Patna properties on Monday in addition to the hotels at Darjeeling and Gangtok for which tie-ups had happened earlier.
Commenting on the signing, IHCL MD and CEO Puneet Chhatwal said, “We are very committed to the eastern part of India as we believe that it has tremendous potential. These signings also cement our relationship with the Ambuja Neotia Group.”
Apart from the six new Taj hotels, IHCL will add four Vivanta properties to the existing two and three Ginger hotels to the existing seven. Except for the Ginger hotel in Agartala that is a leased property, all the other hotels will be on management contract.
On further expansion in the east, Chhatwal said the company would look at opportunities to expand the Taj brand in West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand while focusing on the Vivanta and Ginger brands in the northeastern states.
The two new Taj properties in Kolkata comprise the 147-room hotel at Ambuja City Centre that was formerly managed by Swissotel and a new 57-room boutique hotel Taj Taal Kutir being constructed at Eco Park. While the former will be operational by September 2021 after a refurbishment, the latter is expected to be operational a year later. Taj Chia Kutir Resort & Spa with 72 rooms at Makaibari tea estate in Darjeeling is set to open this month.
Ambuja Neotia group chairman Harshvardhan Neotia pegged the investment in the five properties at Rs 800 crore.
While the IHCL boss said the group would not take the pedal off opening a new property every month owing to the pandemic situation, he said the ratio of revenue from business and leisure hotels is set to change with leisure properties expected to garner 60% revenue as revenge tourism makes its presence felt after the lockdown. Earlier, leisure properties contributed to 40% of IHCL revenue.