Navin Suchanti in Calcutta on Friday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Nov. 4: Sinclairs Hotels Limited will invest Rs 50 crore to set up new hotels and upgrade the existing ones over the next five years.

“We are keen to set up five new properties preferably in the eastern region,” Sinclairs Hotels chairman Navin Suchanti said.

However, the company does not plan to enter big cities as it feels that investment in such projects will be detrimental. Being a zero-debt company, they do not wish to build up a huge loan exposure, he said.

The company currently has properties in Ooty, Darjeeling, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chalsa in Dooars and Siliguri.

“We plan to finance the investment through a mix of internal accruals and loans from financial institutions,” he said. The company plans to make its expansions in a phased manner.

The company will add six more rooms in its 30-room Andaman property at a cost of Rs 4-5 lakh per room. The property has an occupancy rate of 55-60 per cent throughout the year, he said.

“We are also keen on promoting Dooars in Bengal as a popular tourist destination since the area receives almost 60 per cent of the tourist travel within the state,” Suchanti added.

“Also, our property in Ooty is doing extremely well because of the spurt in tourism there. Almost all the properties in Ooty have achieved a business growth of 30-35 per cent last year,” said Suchanti.

In 2004, the number of domestic tourists was 367 million, of which the share of Bengal is 3.4 per cent. The state ranks seventh after Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharshtra.