ITC Hotels’ mid-segment chain Fortune Hotels will add 10 properties and 10 signings in FY24. The company aims to continue the growth trajectory over the coming few fiscals.

On the sidelines of the inauguration of the 50th hotel in Delhi, Samir MC, MD, Fortune Hotels, told businessline that the company expects the next leg of growth to come from the tier-2 and leisure markets.

“We have signed 10 new hotels so far in this financial year, bringing our total pipeline to 17 project hotels. We are having a good run from an opening perspective as well and have already opened seven hotels in this fiscal year till date. In addition to this, we are looking at opening at least 3-4 more hotels in this last quarter of FY24. In terms of Average Room Rates and occupancies, we expect a double-digit growth.”

Tier-2 markets

According to Samir, the company has been experiencing growth from the tier-2 and leisure markets and expects this trajectory to continue for the company. “We started off primarily as a business hotel brand, along the way, we identified that there is a potential in leisure, hence we started switching towards leisure.We’re currently in the high 30s in the leisure hotels and mid 60s for in the business segment. Our aspiration is to get to a 5050 mix between business and leisure hotels. So while we anticipate the metro cities to have potential, we also believe that there is tremendous potential in leisure segments as well as tier 2 markets, and that is where our growth will come from.”

Two decades ago, a wholly-owned subsidiary was floated by ITC Ltd to cater to the business and leisure segment under Fortune Park Hotels Ltd. Today, it has 67 signed alliances and about 5,000 rooms, across 56 cities in the country.

When asked if the company is looking at accelerating the pace of growth, he said that “Yes, We probably signed 20-odd hotels in the last two years. We’ve opened 13 hotels over the last couple of years and that shows that we’ve embarked on a fairly faster pace of growth. And we anticipate that we will continue to open and sign hotels faster, just looking at the pattern plus the fact that we have 17 more hotels in the pipeline. I would say that the growth trajectory will be definitely a lot faster because now it’s also a conscious approach in terms of how we want to drive.”

Earlier last year, ITC Ltd decided to demerge its hotel business. “Our current mandate in this regard is to continue growing our relationships, maintaining a growth trajectory and continue with the asset-light model,” he said.

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