CALCUTTA, INDIA— Indian Hotels Co. Ltd.,the countrys largest hotel chain, aims to establish a presence in the United States and China as part of its growth plans, according to a Reuters report. Indian Hotels, which operates the Taj group of hotels and is owned by the Tata group, currently has 16 foreign properties, the majority of them in the Indian Ocean rim. It does not own or manage any hotel in the U.S. or China. “We would like to have a small, affordable hotel chain that would give us a balanced geographical presence,” R.K. Krishna Kumar, managing director of Indian Hotels, told a news conference in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, said the report. “Ideally, we would like to be in our major source market, the United States, and may be even in China. In five to eight years time, there will be a lot of (tourist and business) traffic in China.” He did not elaborate. Kumar said the Indian hotel industry was showing “early signs of recovery” from the slump induced by the air attacks in the United States on September 11 last year, according to the report. “Occupancy has gone up,” he said, without elaborating. Indias hotel industry, already reeling under a slowdown in the local economy last year, was jolted after the attacks. SOURCE: Reuters
