ITC’s Hotel Group, one of India’s leading luxury hotel chains, is gearing up to launch its first international luxury hotel, which is coming up in Sri Lanka, within the next two months.
The company is reported to have invested close to ₹3,000 crore in the Sri Lankan luxury property, which is being set up under a subsidiary WelcomHotels Lanka. The luxury hotel — ITC Ratnadipa in Colombo — will feature about 352 rooms.
While announcing the reopening of the company’s property Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels on Cathedral Road in Chennai, Zubin Songadwala, Vice President – Operations (South & East), ITC Hotels, said, “By the end of this fiscal, we will be launching our maiden international venture in Sri Lanka where ITC Hotels has invested in building a luxury property.”
He also said that the group would continue to launch new hotels in different geographies of the country as there is a robust pipeline of projects.
ITC Hotel Group operates properties under 6 brands — ITC Hotels, Mementos, Welcomhotel, Storii, Fortune, and WelcomHeritage. It has about 130 properties with about 12,000 keys in 80 destinations across the country.
To open 25 hotels
In the past two years, it opened 22 hotels and is expected to open 25 hotels in the next two years (January 2024-December 2025). Overall, it is targeting 200 hotels with about 18,000 keys over the next 5 years with two-third of the keys in the managed portfolio, according to the company’s recent investor document.
Earlier discussing the new avatar of Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels in Chennai (which was known as Chola Sheraton), Songadwala said the relaunched iconic hotel in Chennai, which was established in 1975, had many of the architecture and design elements, back then and today, to carry a lot of influence of the local culture, arts and crafts, etc. “The Welcomhotel brand of premium hotels, positioned as an upper upscale brand, are designed for the demanding customers who are looking for a bespoke experience while giving the rich heritage of the location where the hotel is positioned. Today, we are a strong 24-hotel network under the Welcomhotel brand. We will be opening the 25th hotel under this brand in Belgaum next month,” he said.
Sustainability
He also said ITC Hotels had embarked on a journey towards sustainability and 22 of its hotels were built as per the LEED Platinum Certification Standards.
Ila Prabhu, General Manager of Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Chennai said the renovation work was completed in a record time of 10 months and the rebranded hotel offers 90 rooms across three categories — Executive Suites, Club Rooms and Superior Rooms. In F&B section, it presents five different outlets including one that offers Chinese cuisine.
It has two banquet halls — Mandapam with a capacity to accommodate 375 people and Saagri on the rooftop with a capacity of 70-80 people. This is the fourth hotel of the group in Chennai.