ITC Ltd on Tuesday said it plans to open 25 hotels pan-India in next 12 to 18 months under its flagship brand, Fortune, a top company official said.
“We have agreements for another 25 hotels across India that are under various stages of development. These hotels will be opened in next 12 to 18 months,” senior executive vice-president (hotels division) of ITC Ltd Pawan Verma said. Verma was here to inaugurate ITC’s 34th hotel and the ninth of the fiscal, Fortune Inn Haveli, at Gandhinagar. Concentrating on the brownfield model, the group is currently expanding across the country. With this, the company now owns three hotels under the brownfield project at Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Vapi in Gujarat.
?We are looking to open new hotels in locations like Vadodara, Gandhidham, Rajkot and Surat in Gujarat but nothing has been finalised yet,? Verma said. Along with business hotels, the company is also eyeing to set up heritage properties in the state. ?We are eyeing heritage property in the state. Talks with some parties are going on, but nothing as such has been finalised in this regard,? he added.
New hotels that are scheduled to be opened in next three to four months include Fortune Select Excalibur in Gurgaon and Fortune Select Loudon in Kolkata, a company official said. The brand Fortune, which has four sub-brands-Fortune Select, Fortune Park, Fortune Inn and Fortune Resort, could also witness some more sub-branding. The group has chain of 115 hotels across India under four flagship brands, ITC-Luxury, Welcome Group, Fortune and Welcome Heritage.
The recent expansions in and around the city has lured the group to come to Gandhinagar, in spite of a hotel at Ahmedabad. Suresh Kumar, president of Fortune Park Hotels Ltd, said, ?The trend of full service business hotels have already started, irrespective of labeling the property on the basis of stars.