Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) is considering the possibility of doing away with its luxury brand Residency, while pushing its newly-launched Vivanta brand. While Taj Residencies currently have three properties ? at Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore and Lucknow ? IHCL has three other properties under the brand name Vivanta. ?We hope this property will attract not only businessmen but tourists as well,? said Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Group.
?We will do away with all the Residencies. These could be branded as Vivanta,? R Krishnakumar, vice-chairman, IHCL, said. The company, incorporated in 1902, by Jamshed N Tata of the Tata group, has 67 hotels in 45 locations in India apart from 15 others abroad.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the stone-laying ceremony of the latest Vivanta hotel, coming up in the outskirts of Guwahati, Krishnakumar said the company will push the Vivanta brand, which has been positioned as ?upper upscale? and placed in between Taj, a five-star super deluxe brand, and Gateway, a five-star deluxe. Vivanta currently has three properties ? in Goa, Bangalore and the Maldives. According to Krishnakuma, IHCL will invest Rs 95 crore for the first phase of the project in Guwahati which includes 150 rooms.
IHCL is also planning to set up six new Taj Safari jungle lodges across the country over the next 18 months. Currently, there are four such lodges located at Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench and Pashangrah in Madhya Pradhesh. IHCL manages the properties through a tie-up with Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa & Beyond), a leading eco-tourism company in Africa.