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Starwood Hotels and Resorts will focus on resorts this year with nearly three of its upcoming properties in this segment opening at Mahabaleshwar, Bekal and Goa under Le Meridien, Westin and W brands. The company is also looking to bring its hotel brand Element into India.
Stephen Ho, President, Asia Pacific, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said, “We believe more than international travellers, it will be the large number of rich Indians who will visit these properties. There is a lack of enough resorts in this country. Also, resorts have a big opportunity to cater meetings, incentive travel, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).”
On the company’s plans for this year, Dilip Puri, Managing Director-India and Regional Vice-President, South Asia, Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts, said, “We expect to open 6-8 hotels this year.” Factoring in all the delays the sector has been facing, he said the firm expected to have 100 hotels under various stages of development by the end of 2015.
The company currently has 34 operational hotels and about 27 are under various stages of development. It runs brands that include Le Meridien, Westin, W, Aloft, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, among others.
On the outlook for this year, Puri said the first nine months could be better than the corresponding period last year as business had picked up in the last quarter of 2012.
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