The Hindu Business Line : ITDC to let two hotels use brand Ashok

New Delhi, Aug 28 India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) announced on Thursday that it has signed a MoU with two privately owned hotels in Chandigarh and Surat, under the ‘Ashok Alliance’ scheme.

Under the agreement, these hotels can use the Ashok brand name, besides availing themselves of the benefits of ITDC facilities, such as the training centre for personnel, its marketing schemes and the common reservation centre, for a period up to three years.

According to Mr Kuldeep Verma, Vice-President – HRD, ITDC, the four-star Hotel Welcome City Beautiful in Chandigarh and the three-star Riverfront Hotel in Surat will retain their individual ownership and identity.

The alliance, however, will give them access to ITDC’s management expertise, standards practices, besides the benefits of the brand name.

In return, ITDC will charge three per cent of the gross room revenue from these hotels.

Expansion plans

The state-owned ITDC also announced further plans to expand its footprint all over the country.

“We have never had a hotel in Mumbai, Chennai and Goa. To get an all-India advantage, we have to have a presence in all these major cities,” said a senior ITDC official.

Elaborating on expansion plans, Mr Verma said that discussions are on for opening hotels in various star categories across the country.

“We’re going to open a five-star hotel near the Kolkata airport, besides three smaller hotels in the State. We’re also looking at opening hotels at Manesar, Haryana, Coorg, and at Malot (Punjab), near the new thermal power station being built there,” he said.

Travel agency tie-up

He added that there are various other plans such as opening hotels in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and also Rishikesh, where the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) has land. ITDC is working on a joint venture basis with the state travel agencies in such areas, he said.

Mr Verma added that ITDC has been paying a dividend of 20 per cent to its stakeholders for the last two years.

“It’s good that we have had significant profits. We have decided to keep reinvesting these back into the hotels,” he said.

Refurbishment

According to the ITDC official, the company is spending Rs 146 crore on the refurbishment of Hotel Ashok in Delhi, besides Rs 20 crore on Hotel Janpath and Rs 10-12 crore on Hotel Samrat.

This expenditure will, however, be spread over four years, said the official. Other hotels that are undergoing refurbishment are the ones in Jammu, Jaipur, Patna, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar.

He added that there are two more models, besides the alliance model, that ITDC is looking at.

These include six projects where ITDC has a 51 per cent stake against the respective state’s 49 per cent and others where ITDC has a complete ownership.

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