ITC would open nine more of its Fortune brand of hotels in the next 10 months. The conglomerate has 110 hotels in all so far, the largest chain in the country.
While six hotels would come up in the National Capital Region, given the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi in October, one each would be opened in Mumbai, Gandhinagar and Kolkata, according to its senior executive vice-president (hotels division), Pawan Verma.
Fortune Park Hotels Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary, opened Fortune Park Vallabha here on Tuesday. Fortune opened seven hotels last year and has an occupancy rate of 60 per cent.
Verma told mediapersons that Fortune was the fastest growing chain of first-class hotels, with 57 alliances and 4,669 rooms in 43 cities across the country. Operational hotels were 32 hotels, while 25 were in various stages of construction and refurbishment, and would be launched over two years.
Stating that Fortune would be adding 1,000 hotel rooms during this calendar year to its existing 2,600 rooms, Verma said this would involve an investment of Rs 500 crore. “But this is not our money.” The investments would be made by the alliance partner, while ITC would take care of the management, he said.
Verma said the hotel industry was upbeat about its future. He, however, ruled out any substantial jump in rates in the current year.
