Agra to get world-class hotels

While international hotel chains like the Oberoi, Taj, ITC, Holiday Inn, and Howard & Hilton have established their presence in Agra, two US-based hotel groups""Radisson and Mariott""are planning to enter this town, looking at the promising business prospects that Agra has to offer.

Being the home of the Taj Mahal offers a distinct advantage for Agra--almost Rs 1,000 crore annually in tourism-generated income.

This income is now attracting business groups from the world over, to invest in the tourism industry of this town, with the primary investment being made in the private sector.

Tourism sources indicate the possible investment of almost Rs 600 crore in Agra in the next two years, with most of the capital going into the booming hotel industry of Agra, with more than 230 hotels at present and several dozen more to be added in the coming few years.

Talking to Business Standard, D K Burman, joint director, UP Tourism, said he had been contacted by the representatives of both the Radisson and Mariott hotel groups and they wanted to lease out their brand names to India-based promoter groups which intended to construct a Radisson or a Mariott hotel in Agra on the basis of franchise.

He said both these hotel groups were internationally renowned brands and their presence in Agra could add laurels to the city's tourism and hospitality industry, while also adding up to the room tally in the town, which had failed to increase significantly in the past few years.

He said all the hotels in Agra taken together had a room capacity of around 10,000 rooms, which was not sufficient considering the importance of Agra as a tourism hub of the country. He said currently, Agra was going through an "off-season" and that the tourist season only began in late October. Still, both the upper-end and mid-range hotels of the town were facing a shortage of adequate rooms to house tourists who in flock in thousands to Agra every day.

In fact, he said, during weekends, a large number of tourists had to resort to budget class hotels due to non-availability of rooms in the limited 4-5 star hotels in the town.

According to Burman, keeping in view the forthcoming tourist season beginning in October, Five-Star hotels in Agra had already begun investing in the upgradation of their housing capacity and renovation of the existing buildings which was going to cost approximately Rs 60 crore while another Rs 70 crore were to be spent by middle & budget class hotels in the coming two years.

It is noteworthy here that more than 90 per cent of the hotels in Agra are concentrated around the Taj Mahal and on the roads leading to the monument.

Commercial space is available at high premium in the area, forcing the large hotel groups to locate their ventures more than 4-5 kms away from the monument, outside the main township, attracting other hotel chains to follow suit.

Already, atleast three new hotels and resorts are under construction in the vicinity of these hotels and if the Agra Development Authority sources are to be believed, all new hotel projects shall have to move farther away from the monument, which may act as a deterrent for individual tourists, who prefer to stay closer to the monument in the main town, instead of moving away towards the town's outer peripheries.