Onyx Hospitality Group planning hotels in India

"After studying and exploring opportunities in India for 18 months, we are confident that there is more room to grow for mid-market and upscale hotels and residences to capitalise on the demand," Kashyap Vora, vice president for development, said last week.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s "Make In India" campaign, Asia’s third largest economy aims to attract overseas investors to make the country a manufacturing base.

The government wants to double the number of foreign tourists in five years from last year’s 7.9 million.

The key cities in the group’s sights are Delhi and the National Capital Region, Jaipur, Ahmeda-bad, Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi.

The company would enter the Indian hospitality market through its strategic partner Kingsbridge, a hospitality asset management company, with which it has already landed two management contracts.

One is for the Amari Noida, a 120-room hotel with 30 residences located in the World Trade Centre Noida project. It will also care for the complex’s facilities such as three restaurants, meeting and convention hall, swimming pool, fitness centre and spa.

Construction commences next year for the grand opening to be held in 2019.

The other is the Amari Residences GIFT City in Ahmedabad. Ground-breaking for the 120 serviced apartments in the World Trade Centre in Gujarat International Finance Tech-city will be next year and completion in 2018.

For the remaining properties, the group has decided to enter into a joint venture with Kingsbridge to co-invest in them on top of managing them. For the JV, the group will bring its upscale Amari brand for hotels and residences while seeking opportunities for second-tier brands like Ozo.

ML Suravut Thongthaem, senior vice president for development and owner relations for Southeast Asia, said India is a key market for the group.

"Last year, our group welcomed about 100,000 guests from India. We expect to see about 7-per-cent annual growth for this market."

Under the Modi administration’s drive to make India a manufacturing-based economy, the hospitality business would benefit more.

The new properties would serve the increasing demand from overseas business travellers and local entrepreneurs in those commercial cities.

Some industries like pharmaceuticals, insurance, information technology and software, financial services and direct sales were still strong.

This also presents a huge opportunity for the group in the meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition business.

By 2022, the group aspires to operate 81 properties in Asia-Pacific, South Asia and the Middle East, up from 38 now.