According to the ICRA (International Credit Rating Agency) last study named "Indian hotel industry" in march 2012, with 740 million domestic travellers (in 2011) and over 6.3 million FTAs, India, after China, is considered one of the most lucrative hotel markets in the world and has the second largest construction pipeline in Asia. Growing affluence and the increasing role India is expected to play in the global economy are likely to drive both leisure and business travel in the coming years. For most global hotel majors a significant part of their hotel pipeline is centred on faster growing developing markets like India. India has an estimated 1, 70,000 hotel rooms of which around 60,000 are branded. Even with the expected addition of another 60,000 hotel rooms (across segments) over the next three to five years, the industry is expected to fall short of meeting the long term demands of an economy growing at 7-9% p.a.
India has often been cited as one of the most lucrative albeit difficult markets to develop properties in. Bureaucratic red tape, corruption, multiple licenses, complex approval procedures, exorbitant land cost, all of which leads to a long development cycle of 3-5 years adds to the cost. The average development cycle for India in the premium segment is around 0.5-1 year longer than for the general Asia pacific region1. Despite which, India houses all the big hotel groups (top ten hotel majors listed in the table below) in the world under multiple brands/prices. Of the top twenty global brands (in terms of number of hotels), around 18 brands are already present in India.
In the hospitality business line, it is important to not make errors of invest decisions. The cost of creating an ambience and all services around is very high.