The United States-based Best Western International, one of the largest hotel chains in the world, is set to foray into the education sector in India.
The company’s India arm has identified four locations to set up hospitality management schools in the country. The first one will come up in Bangalore in the next six months.
Best Western, which runs hotels worldwide under the franchisee model, will start educational institutions in the same model, tying up with local players.
“Globally, we are not into the education sector. We are setting up such a training centre in India for the first time,” said David T Kong, president and CEO, Best Western International.
The hotel chain, however, has an e-learning platform. “The Bangalore training centre will host short-term courses for at least 200 students. We are also planning to set up institutes in Noida, Dehradun and Bhubaneswar,” said Sudhir Sinha, president and chief operating officer, Best Western India, on the sidelines of a Bengal Chamber event here. He did not say with whom the company is joining hands to run the educational institutions.
Meanwhile, it will add 10-12 properties in 2012 to expand its portfolio to 100 by 2017, which will see an investment of about Rs 1,600 crore in the next five years. “Of these 100 hotels to be added, 60 will be higher brand hotels and 40 will be of the middle level. The firm manages its hotels under Best Western Plus (4 star) and Best Western Premier (5 star) properties, too. Currently, the hotel chain has 34 properties in India with 2,581 rooms and some facilities including those in Kolkata, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad and Goa are under various stages of construction.
“On an average, the investment will be Rs 30-35 crore for each of these hotels.,” Sinha said. The $6-billion Best Western International has over 4,000 hotels under its portfolio in more than 80 countries.
