Tag Archives: Gujarat

Ginger has signed a new hotel in Bharuch, a key city of Gujarat. The brand is already present in six cities in the state with hotels under development in Surat and Sanand. With this new addition, Ginger will have 10 hotels with a combined inventory of close to 800 rooms in Gujarat. Deepika Rao, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ginger said, “We are delighted to expand our presence in Gujarat and enter Bharuch by partnering Hotel Sethna Plaza Annexe. The modern day Bharuch is one of the biggest industrial areas in the state. The hotel will be ideally located to cater to the business guests.” With 55 comfortable rooms, an all-day diner, a banquet hall and a fitness centre; the new Ginger is located just a few minutes from the railway station amidst a commercial hub catering to chemical, textile and pharmaceutical companies. The hotel is a management contract and is slated to commence operations in 2019.    

In a bid to attract investors across the industry, a number of state tourism boards presented their ideas and prospect on tourism in their respective states during the 4th Tourism Investors Meet held at FICCI, Federation House, New Delhi. The tourism boards of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur gave detailed presentations on how their state provides lucrative opportunities to investors. Each presentation counted on their USP and explained about the incentives and concessions provided by the respective state governments. The first presentation was given by the meet’s Theme State West Bengal Tourism which stressed on developing the state as an ‘ecotourism hub’. This was followed by a presentation by Partner State Rajasthan Tourism which focused on promoting heritage location and properties in the state. It also talked about opportunity of growth for adventure sports and MiCE in the state. Feature State Gujarat Tourism stressed on providing attractive incentives to investors with last mile connectivity for travellers in the state. The final presentation was given by Feature State Manipur Tourism. Highlighting the state’s rich culture and resources, the presentation talked about the prospect of developing Manipur as a ‘tourism hub’. The main focus was on Loktak lake, the largest fresh water lake in the Northeast.

Lords Hotels & Resorts has added a new property in Jamnagar, Gujarat to be launched under the ‘Eco Inn’ branding. It is the brand’s 15th hotel property in the state and overall, its 28th. The property is expected to commence operations in the fourth quarter of this year. Lords Eco Inn – Jamnagar will have 65 rooms with modern amenities and full-services. The property will have an elegant banquet hall attached to sprawling green lawns and will also have its trademark multi-cuisine restaurant – Blue Coriander. “We are pleased to officially announce the sign-up of Lords Eco Inn – Jamnagar and congratulate our partners for their new venture with us. From our first hotel Lords Plaza in Surat back in the year 2007 to the latest, Lords Hotels & Resorts has created a niche for itself in the region and is Gujarat’s ‘numero uno’ hospitality brand today,” says P R Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, Lords Hotels & Resorts. Lords Eco Inn – Jamnagar is a partnership venture with entrepreneurs Sunil Lodaya and Kuldeep Sinh. “Our presence dots the western coast of Gujarat roughly at intervals of 130 km of each other. Lords Eco Inn – Jamnagar will be our seventh property in the region and with it, we will have created a complete beach circuit in Gujarat. All properties in the circuit cater to a mix of business, leisure, pilgrimage and adventure tourism, and Lords Hotels & Resorts enjoys a lion’s share in the region. Once launched, we are expecting Lords Eco Inn – Jamnagar to capture a significant part of business tourists visiting the city,” says Rishi Puri, Vice President, Lords Hotels & Resorts.

Gujarat has received an overwhelming response in terms of investment in tourism projects after it launched its Tourism Policy 2015-2020 in September 2015, according to Jenu Devan, Managing Director, and Commissioner of Tourism, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited. He says, “It has become a tremendous success. Till date, there are 220 applications for various tourism projects like hotels, resorts, amusement parks, etc. worth Rs 9,000 crore. So in the next few years, Gujarat is poised to have a fantastic tourism infrastructure for both the inbound and domestic tourists.” Gujarat received a total of 448 lakhs tourists during 2016-17. This was 16.9 per cent higher than the flow in 2015-16. The flow of tourists within Gujarat also increased with a 15 per cent growth. Speaking about the source markets in India and abroad, he adds, “We see the entire India as our source market. However, we get maximum traffic from our neighboring states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Internationally, UK tops the list followed by USA. We would like to receive more traffic from the South East Asian markets as they are short-haul destinations for India.”

Mercure makes its debut in the holy city of Dwarka with the opening of Mercure Dwarka. Strategically located in the Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat, the hotel is a short drive from the Dwarkadhish temple, popularly known as Jagat Mandir. The hotel is conveniently located at a five minute drive from the railway station, an hour’s drive from Porbandar Airport and a little over two hours from the Jamnagar Airport. The hotel is also in close proximity to Nageshwar Temple, Gopi Talav Theertham, Rukmani Devi Temple and Hanuman Mandir. The opening of Mercure Dwarka marks AccorHotels’ fourth property in the land of legends, Gujarat. Featuring 99 guest rooms, including one suite, the hotel offers spacious interiors and modern design; the rooms are equipped with in-room amenities and high speed Wi-Fi access. Fitness enthusiasts can also enjoy a refreshing work out at the state-of-the-art fitness centre. Rishabh Gupta, Co-founder & Director, Blue Rock Hospitality Ventures, said, “Mercure Dwarka is the first hotel of Blue Rock’s portfolio, set in the holy city of Dwarka. It marks a commitment to develop branded upper midscale hotels in holy cities, industrial hubs, emerging destinations & undersupplied pockets of developed cities, across the country. The development of Mercure Dwarka aims to bring emphasis on design with a commitment on service offerings to our guests staying at the property.” Aadil Muscatwala, Co-founder & Director, Blue Rock Hospitality Ventures said, “The opening of Mercure Dwarka is our first step in realizing Blue Rock’s vision of becoming a leading asset ownership company as India’s vibrant hotelier industry. We will continue to invest in high yielding operational assets to create new supply of hotel rooms through our green field developments …

VITS Hotel Worldwide has recently opened its Hotel VITS Devbhumi in Dwarka, located close to prominent landmarks of Dwarkadish temple, of Dwarka Devbhumi district of Gujarat. Announcing the launch, Vikram Kamat, Managing Director¸ VITS Luxury Business Hotels says, “This is our third property in Gujarat and we are extremely upbeat on the growth prospect in the region. VITS is positioned as a moderately priced full service luxury business hotel and enjoys high occupancy rate at all our 10 properties across India. We believe VITS Devbhumi Dwarka with its strategic location, imposing décor, banqueting and host of hospitality will appeal to both leisure and business tourists.” VITS Devbhumi Dwarka offers 58 rooms providing four-star deluxe experiences. It offers well-equipped conference room, travel desk, multi-cuisine restaurants, open air terrace restaurant, gaming zone and banqueting facilities. VITS Luxury Hotels presently operates 10 properties located in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik, Latur, Ankleshwar, Silvassa, Agra, Chakan and Bhubaneshwar. The Hotel chain presently has inventory of 900 rooms with host of banqueting, conferencing, restaurant and lifestyle facilities. As part of its expansion plans VITS Hotel will unveil the VITS hospitality experience in Mumbai (Colaba), Nanded, Dahej, Ahmedabad and Mangalore by April 2018. The company plans to penetrate its reach nationally with 20 properties scheduled for launch primarily in Tier 2 and tier 3 in cities within the next three years.

About 50 travel agents gathered at Mumbai’s Ballard Pier to get onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s luxury cruise ship called Seven Seas Voyager that made its way from Bangkok into the Indian Ocean and onwards to Rome. The agents were from Mumbai as well as other cities like New Delhi, Gujarat and even Bengaluru. They did a ship inspection followed by a sit-down lunch at one of the ship’s fine-dining restaurants while interacting with Steve Odell, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Promoted as the most luxurious ship ever built, Regent Seven Seas was docked in Mumbai for two days and had 99 per cent occupancy.

Lords Hotels & Resorts has signed up its 27th hotel property at Sasan Gir in Gujarat. Presently run as Vishal The Greenwoods, the hotel will come under the Lords Hotels & Resorts banner and will begin operations under the new management this month. One of the closest hotels to The Gir National Park, Vishal Lords Inn – Gir Forest offers an unparalleled locational advantage to tourists visiting the park. Located at a close proximity to the Madhuvanti Dam, the premium property offers seventy-two keys to stunningly spacious villas, luxurious suites, and plush rooms. Some of the other amenities include a mini theatre, swimming pool, game zone, a well-furnished restaurant and above all a great view of the Gir Forest. The discerning guest, the hotel houses an Ayurveda spa and even a shopping arcade. The launch of this hotel follows the opening of a hotel property in Bharuch which the hotel chain had signed up last year. The addition of this property makes Lords Hotels & Resorts the largest and the most dominant hospitality chain in the state of Gujarat. “Being the only region in Asia that is home to lions, Sasan Gir enjoys a round the year tourist inflow including foreign tourists. The region is a dry deciduous forest however the hotel has been developed in absolute contrast to its surroundings. With plantations of several trees and exotic plants, the infrastructure will provide the guest with a green and clean environment while in the hotel premises. The hotel also co-ordinates lion safari options for the guests. While the services and amenities will be at par with any other hotel in the neighbourhood, the tariffs will be much more economical,” says …

Lords Hotels & Resorts has recently signed its 26th property in Bharuch, Gujarat. To be branded under the Lords Eco Inn banner, it is scheduled to commence operations from December 2016. This makes Lords Hotels & Resorts the largest hotel chain in the state. Located between the two major cities of Surat and Vadodara, Lords Eco Inn – Bharuch serves as an ideal stopover destination. With a 48 rooms, the eco inn offers luxurious accommodations and full-service at friendly prices for the discerning business and leisure traveller. P.R. Bansal, CMD, Lords Hotels & Resorts, says, “The addition of this hotel to our chain of hotels marks a significant milestone and one that is unique, for us. From the first hotel back in 2007 which was set in this very state to this one in 2016, we have gone on to become the largest chain of true value hotels in Gujarat. Today our hotels dot the entire region. We now have all its four brands including Lords Plaza, Lords Inn, Lords Resort and Lords Eco Inn that caters to the leisure, corporate and also the pilgrimage tourists which Gujarat Tourism is known for in the state. Of the 15 Lords Hotels & Resorts properties in the state, this will be the sixth ‘Eco Inn’ brand for the group.” “We have been looking to aggressively establish our presence across the country while maintaining Gujarat as the home. In the last few months we have added three new properties in Jammu, Agra and Thrissur. We are looking to expand our portfolio not just in India but also outside, especially in the neighbouring countries where the hospitality sector still has a huge margin for …

States like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh exchanged 86 MoUs, aggregating close to Rs 15,000 crores during the inaugural edition of Incredible India Tourism Investors Summit (IITIS) 2016. Gujarat exchanged MoUs close to Rs 9000 crores, Karnataka with Rs. 2600 crores, Rajasthan with Rs. 1000 crores, Uttarakhand with Rs. 500 crores and Chhattisgarh with Rs. 12 crores. Also, B. R. Shetty Group is keen to invest Rs. 450 crores and Costa Cruise Rs. 750 crores and Triveni Singapore close to Rs. 800 crores in the country. Vinod Zutshi, Secretary-Tourism, Government of India, informed that IITIS will be held annually to boost tourism and will be supported by World Bank. The next edition of IITIS will be organized in September 2017. “World Bank is supporting India’s Buddhist Circuit development and will provide support for sustainable tourism development including through funds,” said Cecile Fruman, Global Director, Trade and Competitiveness, World Bank. At the Summit, organized by Ministry of Tourism (MoT) in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tourism Finance Corporation of India, Zutshi also announced various initiatives like setting up of a task force headed by Secretary-Tourism, with membership from relevant ministries, state governments, and industry associations to undertake strategic planning; setting up of an investor facilitation desk to handhold investors and facilitate projects and organising investor meets in states with the support of MoT.