Australia's hospitality group, Country Comfort Hotels, has begun initial franchise discussion with a Mumbai-based group as it looks for business opportunities in India.
"We have just embarked on initial discussions with a group in Mumbai about the possibility of a Country Comfort franchise," said Sean Flynn, Executive Vice-President for brands at the Singapore-based SilverNeedle Hospitality, that owns Country Comfort brand.
"We are focusing on India this year. We see huge opportunities there," he said, adding Country Comfort has aggressive plans for franchising in India.
"We aim to sign 14 Area Development Agreements in the country, which commit to the development of 100 properties. We are targeting to have over 20 of these open in five years," Flynn told PTI here.
Country Comfort model has an average of 101 rooms and looks to put its franchise on hotels with 80-150 rooms each in major cities as well as secondary and tertiary cities in India.
"Both the domestic business and the domestic leisure traveller have continued to show resilience and maintain their share of the pie and overall length of stay, when compared to the nationwide average from last year's survey," he said quoting the Indian Hotel Industry Survey 2012-13.
Business travellers contribute the largest share to the market mix at 39 per cent to the Indian hotel industry, he noted.
Flynn backed his market strategy in India with industry estimates showing that Indian cities recorded a growth of 11 per cent in hotel room supply with demand increasing by 9.2 per cent in 2012-13.
The 28-year old brand has 29 hospitality properties in Australia and New Zealand.
