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Global hospitality chain InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is in the process of developing 46 greenfield projects across primary and secondary cities in India. “Of this, over 70 per cent are in the mid-scale segment under the brand ‘Holiday Inn', said Mr Chris Moloney, Chief Operating Officer (South West Asia), InterContinental Hotels Group.
In addition, the group has signed a joint venture agreement with Duet India (in which IHG has invested $30 million) to develop a chain of 20 ‘focused mid-scale full service' hotels under the brand Holiday Inn Express in the next five years. All these hotels will be managed by IHG.
Total rooms
All these put together, IHG will have at least 15,000 rooms under its management by 2016, and “our target for 2020 is to have 150 hotels under our management”, he said.
As India is seen a key growth market for IHG, the group is moving or relocating people at senior levels to India to spearhead its expansion here. IHG at present has 14 hotels in India under three brands: 4 InterContinental Hotels (Upscale luxury brand), 4 Crowne Plaza (upscale business hotel brand), 6 Holiday Inn (Mid-scale brand) with over 2,200 rooms in total.
Considering the fact that India has a middle class population of more than 350 million , and the domestic travel and tourism industry is growing at a “very healthy” pace, “we understand that there is big room for mid-segment hotels here and feel this is the most appropriate time to invest and expand our footprint in this part of the world,” he said.
Competition
Answering a specific question on competition, he said competition would improve service levels of these hotels and also would ensure that the price points are accurate. “These things would only benefit consumers at the end of the day.”
India's skills
Talking about the availability of skilled people, he said India has enough talent. “What's wonderful about India is that the people here have the natural sense of hospitality. All one has to do is train them in soft skills and specialised skill sets such as marketing and general management and so on,” he said.
According to him, the company would require at least 25,000 people in the next five years. “We are currently working with a number of schools and universities to get students industry ready,” he added.
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