Leela plans hotels in major pilgrim centres

The Leela Palace, Hotels and Resorts plans to make a foray into building hotels in the pilgrim destinations. The hotels will be branded The Leela Garden and will be present in major pilgrim destinations.

Leela Hotels Chairman C P Krishnan Nair said, "We plan to get into the second rung of hotels and they would be in religious destinations. I believe areas surrounding a temple should have a clean environment and we plan to have the presence of our brand in such destinations."

The company also plans to get into budget and convention hotels.

"We would be looking at other segments of the hospitality industry once we finish our expansion plans in the luxury segment. We have certain projects to be completed by 2010 and after that, we would look into other segments as well," said Rajiv Kaul, senior vice-president, Hotel Leelaventure.

At present, the company has five-star luxury hotels under development in Gurgaon, Delhi, Udaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. It is also planning to upgrade its Hotel Leela Kovalam from 185 rooms to 400 rooms.