ITC plans to develop new hotel properties

Hyderabad: Diversified business group ITC (hotels division) is planning to develop properties across the country depending on the demand and land availability, the group's hotels division Senior Executive Vice-President Pawan Verma said.

In association with its wholly-owned subsidiary Fortune Park Hotels, ITC had already taken up property development work at Bangalore and Coimbatore.

Verma revealed that ITC is also considering few more hotel properties to be developed in tier-II towns in Andhra Pradesh such as Vijayawada, Tirupati. 'Fortune Park will invest in all these properties, while ITC will provide land,' he said.

Commenting on the impact of economic downturn and Mumbai blasts, Verma said the industry lost its occupancy levels drastically and the situation will continue for some more time. Verma was in Hyderabad to announce the property management agreement with city-based Shri Shakti Resorts & Hotels, which opened 'Fortune Select Manohar'.

Out of 52 properties signed by Fortune Hotels across 41 cities, 25 properties are now operational. The company is managing 14 hotel properties in southern India, Verma said.

The remaining 27 properties will be operational in the next two years, he added. Verma predicted that hospitality business may pick up from second week of January 2009.

'The industry is slowly gathering confidence, and hopefully even the customers will gain confidence by second week of January 2009,' he said.