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New Delhi, April 2: The Oberois-owned East India Hotels has formed a strategic alliance with Hilton International under which seven Trident Hotels will be renamed as Trident Hilton.

Oberoi Towers in Mumbai has also changed its name to Hilton Towers.

In an attempt to promote the Trident Hilton brand, the two hospitality groups have also created a fund that will take care of the brand promotion exercise in India over the next few weeks.

“We are setting up a marketing fund, which will be jointly controlled by the two groups to promote the brand,” said Koos Klein, president, Middle East and Asia pacific, Hilton International Asia Pacific Limited.

While refusing to reveal the size of this fund, EIH Ltd chairman P. R. S. Oberoi said, “It is certainly more than sufficient.”

The franchise agreement builds on the combined strengths of Trident’s domestic brand position and operational expertise together with Hilton’s strong global brand, vast sales and marketing network.

Under the strategic alliance, EIH will continue to manage all hotels and will undertake domestic marketing promotion and reservations in India. Hilton International will be responsible for international marketing, promotion and reservations through the Hilton global network.

The seven Trident properties that will carry the Hilton tag are in Gurgaon, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai and Kochi.

Oberoi said, “Although EIH has historically focused on operating its own hotels, this alliance is set to maximise growth and profitability in future.”

Underlining the importance of forging an alliance with an international brand, Oberoi said, “Branding hotels is a very complicated process. In 10 years, it is not possible to build an international brand for Trident. Such an alliance will help us in marketing ourselves abroad in a very effective way.”

While the strategic alliance is not an exclusive arrangement between the two hospitality groups, Klein said: “At present, the Trident hotels in India is only represented by Hilton. If in future we decide to form relationships outside, it will be well-coordinated and not prove disadvantageous to each other in any way.”

Not ruling out the possibility of a joint venture, Oberoi said: “We hope to plan more hotels in future. Depending on their experience with us, Hilton may decide to infuse equity in other hotels in the Oberoi group. However, there is no such plan at the moment.”

The Oberoi group, which hopes to make a profit of Rs 10-12 crore for fiscal 2003-04, is expecting a 30 per cent growth in revenues. The group is targeting a 50 per cent revenue growth in 2004-05.

The Oberoi Group owns and operates 30 hotels and five luxury cruisers across six countries under the ‘Oberoi’ and ‘Trident’ brand names.