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InterGlobe Hotels To Develop 20 Ibis Hotels In India
Neeti Chopra - New Delhi
 InterGlobe
Hotels, a 60:40 joint venture between InterGlobe Enterprises and Accor Asia
Pacific is envisaging an investment of over Rs 850 crore to develop a minimum
of 25 Ibis brand economy hotels in South Asia over the next 10-12 years. Twenty
of these hotels will be located in India.
The first two hotels in India under this brand will be at
Bangalore and Gurgaon where the development activity is already underway. The
first phase of investment will be to the tune of Rs 165 crore. The Bangalore
hotel with 250 rooms will come up by mid-2006 followed by the Gurgaon hotel
with 210 rooms by the end of 2006. The rooms will be priced between Rs 1,800
to Rs 2,200.
Outlining the reasons why Ibis brand is being introduced at
this point of time, Uttam Dave, president and CEO, InterGlobe Hotels,
explained, "There is political and economic stability in the country. Improved
infrastructure facilities, reduction in travel costs, extreme shortage of hotel
rooms and increasing demand for budget hotels in India are some of the factors
that have initiated us to launch this brand."
Target cities for immediate future development are Mumbai,
NCR region, Chennai and Hyderabad. A site is under active negotiation in Pune
while another site has been secured at Jaipur. "The consuming class in
India is becoming aware and rapidly growing and there is a strong emergence
of cities and towns. We would be looking at convenient downtown locations for
this brand," pointed out Dave.
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Accor is pursuing management opportunities
in the sub-continent and actively negotiating the management of two purpose-built
300-room Novotel brand hotels at Gurgaon and Hyderabad respectively. Accor
is also in discussion to manage Novotel hotels at Chennai, Mumbai and
Pune.
Michael Issenberg, managing
director, Accor Asia Pacific said, "We could not have chosen
a better partner for the sub-continent than InterGlobe, with its diversified
interests in travel management, distribution and technology. We are looking
forward to introduce our other major brands - Sofitel, Novotel and Mercure
as and when appropriate projects become available."
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