Dubai-based diversified group Pearl Investment has said it plans to open 10 hotels in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and India with an investment of 500 million dirhams (USD 136.15 million) over the next five years.
The group announced the plans as it embarked on celebrating its 10 years of operations in the UAE.
Riyadh, Makkah and Madinah are among the GCC locations for hotel projects, while the group's Flora Airport Kochi in India is due to open in December 2010. The spa project on the 25-acre Flora Island Resort is about 15 minutes drive from Kochi airport.
The 70-room, four-star boutique hotel will have banqueting facilities for 1,000 guests.
Flora Group Hotels' managing director Noordheen Babu said the group's hotels recorded an average occupancy of 87 per cent in 2009, which was one of the most economically challenging times for the global tourism industry, and the average occupancy level for this year has been 85 per cent.
The 350-million dirham ($95.3 million) family-managed Pearl Investment runs Flora Group Hotels and Ontime Technical Services as its subsidiaries. It has over 3,000 staff members, drawn from 20 nationalities, on its payrolls.
Pearl Investment's business partners in India are Oberon Mall -- the biggest Mall in Kochi -- and Food Circle, which is a food outlets chain in the Southern Indian state of Kerala.
The group ventured into hospitality business in the year 2000 with the launch of Florida Hotel, and presently operates six hotels and hotel apartments in Dubai.
The properties are -– Flora Grand Hotel, Florida Hotel, Hotel Florida International, Flora Hotel Apartments, Flora Park Hotel Apartments and Flora Creek Hotel Apartments. The group's properties have a total inventory of over 700 rooms and furnished flats.
Flora Group Hotels is also among the first non-alcoholic hotel groups in the UAE and is a partner-member of Green Hotels Association.
