Hilton Hotels, has announced that they will build up to 75 hotels and serviced apartments in India over the next seven years as part of a joint venture with a local developer.
The company, together with New Delhi-based developer DLF, would build the facilities under several Hilton brands as they seek to capitalise on a shortage of hotel rooms of all grades in India, with India Infoline, a research house saying, “Growing foreign tourist arrivals and increased business and leisure travel by domestic travellers has seen the Indian hospitality industry grow at a 15% compound annual growth rate over the past three years”.
The move by Hilton and DLF is the latest in a series of similar announcements by foreign hotel companies. Accor, Europe’s largest hotel company, said this week it had teamed up with an Indian unit of Emaar Properties, the largest developer in the Middle East, to build 100 budget hotels across the country.
The announcements follow a steady rise in travel to and within India. India Infoline said Indian tourist arrivals had grown an average 6% a year between 1994 and 2004 compared with a global average of 4%, with the potential for growth was much higher, estimated at 8.8% over the next 10 years.
DLF will hold 74% of the joint venture and Hilton the remainder, with the US-based hotel company investing $US143 million ($183 million) over the next five to seven years before debt.
DLF’s investment was not disclosed with India Infoline estimated that the hospitality industry would add 15,000 five-star rooms across the country over the next five years.
Report by The Mole
