The InterContinental Hotels Group is committed to have 150 hotels operational by 2020, its Chief Executive Officer in Asia, West Asia and Africa, Jan Smits, said. He was in India as part of the trade mission travelling with the British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Smits said the company signed 13 new hotels in India last year, increasing its total hotel development pipeline to 47 hotels, the second-largest in the Asia-Pacific region after China.
At present, the company has 13 hotels in nine cities under the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands.
On his experience as part of the trade mission, Smits said, “The opportunity in India is enormous. There is a strong growth in the middle class and fast-growing domestic demand. The Government has a strong commitment towards growth of infrastructure. What was very refreshing was the plans to build more universities and getting more graduates trained and the work being done for skill development.”
He said India has one of the biggest and youngest workforce among the BRIC markets.
“We expect to employ as many as 10,000 personnel who will play a critical role in our operations as we expand our hotels by 2020. We need more and more local graduates with hotel and tourism management training for the jobs we are creating. We are working with local educational institutions to deliver training in hospitality through our IHG Academy programmes,” Smits said.
Asked about the challenges faced by the hotel segment such as multiple licensing, high land costs, high cost of capital and longer building cycles, Smits said, “We are working with our real estate partners to help them achieve good returns on their investment and build hotels quicker and help in the construction process through efficient designs.”
Asked if IHG was satisfied with the pace of expansion of its hotels in India, he said, “We understand the market and our key priority is to get the right partners to build the hotels .We are quite comfortable with our pace of growth.”