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June 21, 2007 14:06 IST
Looking to cash in on severe room shortage in India's hospitality sector, global leader InterContinental Hotels Group plans expansion across the country through a shift from franchise model to management contracts in its India operations.
"We are actively working on our expansion plan and the company is looking at opportunities in all tier I,II and III cities," IHG Director of Operations, South West Asia, Michael Herrmann, told PTI.
He said the group, which is now focusing more on management contracts as against 'franchisee model', is in talks with many real estate developers.
"Discussions are on with a number of developers for management contracts," he said.
However, he declined to divulge details. IHG, the world's largest hospitality group in terms of number of rooms, had recently entered into management contracts for seven hotels totalling about 1,700 rooms, he said, adding that the company hoped to sign many more hotels in near future.
Out of the seven hotels for which IHG has entered into a contract, two are in Kochi and one each in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. Herrmann said IHG would like to sign as many hotels as it can, provided there are right partners and right locations.
"Currently India has about 1 lakh rooms and there is a shortage of one lakh rooms," he said, adding that growth would be faster in the mid and mid-to-upper segments.
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