IHG Hotels & Resorts, which manages a bouquet of brands such as Six Senses, Intercontinental, Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn, is keen to expand portfolio in Bengal with eye on locations such as Siliguri, Darjeeling, Asansol-Durgapur, apart from Calcutta.
The company, which is operating three properties in the city, is scouting for opportunities for potential partnership with property developers in these markets.
“The city of Calcutta and the state of Bengal hold a great deal of potential as far as hospitality is concerned. There are many markets which offers opportunities in such as Siliguri, Darjeeling, Asansol - Durgapur, Santiniketan or even Sundarbans,” Sudeep Jain, managing director of IHG Hotels, South East Asia, said.
Jain, who grew up in Calcutta, was in the city at the launch of Holiday Inn Express, in Rajarhat, with Samhi Hotels Ltd.
There are two Holiday Inn Express and one Holiday Inn from IHG Portfolio in Bengal.
He said Calcutta can certainly take more Holiday Inn or even upscale properties such as Intercontinental or Crown Plaza.
The company is not alone in its quest, hotel chains such as IHCL and ITC Hotels are also looking to add more properties in Bengal.
“Demand is not a problem. What we need is a conducive environment – a better licening atmosphere. If the ease of doing business improves, it would really boost tourism which has a multiplier effect on economy,” Jain argued.
IHG, which lends brand to properties which are built by institutional developers such as Samhi, has a portfolio of 50 hotels and it plans to open 84 properties in India.
Samhi scouts buyout
Samhi Hotels, which deploys institutional capital to build hotels and then let chains such as IHG, Mariott and Hyatt to operate them, is looking to acquire a property in central Calcutta.
“We are keen to have at least one upper-upscale property in that part of the city,” Ashish Jakhanwala, MD & CEO of Samhi Hotels, said.
The company is testing waters with the budget property Holiday Inn Express in Rajarhat – a 114-room hotel aimed to service the burgeoning IT and commercial office space segment in that part of the city.
“We track office space development and airline count closely. Going by those yardsticks, Calcutta was an obvious choice,” he explained.