Coimbatore, situated in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the second largest city of the state and one of the fast-growing cities in India. Coimbatore is known for its textile factories, engineering firms, automobile parts manufacturers, health care facilities, educational institutions, pleasant weather, friendly culture and hospitality.
Coimbatore is also pegged as the one of the key growth centres outside of Chennai in southern India. Being a traditional manufacturing base, the city has most of the required ingredients for growth.
The city has rail and road connections to all the major cities of south India, three national highways pass through the city, and the city has an airport and an Air Force base. Recently, the Airport Authority of India has given its approval for the modification and expansion of the airport. It has two airports, Coimbatore and Sulur Aerodrome (only for military). It is well connected to ports by road and railways. Chennai and Tuticorin are the nearest and biggest sea ports.
It is a heavily industrialised city and a regional hub for textiles, manufacturing, software services, education and health care. The city is also referred to as “the Manchester of South India” due to the presence of a flourishing textile industry fed by the surrounding cotton fields. The district also houses the country’s largest amount of hosiery and poultry industries.
The city has over 25,000 small, medium and large scale industries and two IT SEZs. Tirupur in Coimbatore District is being called the “Town of Export Excellence”. It accounts for 56% of India’s total knitwear exports. The availability of spinning, weaving, knitting, machinery manufacturers, stitching, made-up manufacturers, textile accessories and huge export exposure makes it the best site of a textile sector specific special economic zone.
Demand Drivers
Coimbatore is going to be the next IT hub in south India with large entities like Cognizant, Robert Bosch, Perot Systems, and Tata Consultancy Services, have their presence in Coimbatore. Coimbatore earns INR6,350 mn from exports of 60 mn kg of cotton yarn annually.
Coimbatore’s total existing supply of office space (Grade A and Grade B) is about 5 mn sq ft, of which Grade A constitutes around 3 mn sq ft. This is expected to increase to 7 mn sq ft by 2011, driven by the growth of IT/ITES-BPO units in the region. The city is the second largest software producer in Tamil Nadu, next only to Chennai. IT and BPO industry in the city has grown greatly with the launch of TIDEL park and other planned IT parks around the city.
Motorsports play a large part in the city, with Coimbatore is often referred to as the motorsports capital of India and the backyard of Indian motorsports. There is also a rise in the entertainment sector in the city with the presence of prominent social clubs, enhanced sporting facilities and upcoming malls. Healthcare and medical tourism are other prominent aspects in the city making it a preferred healthcare destination for the neighbouring states.
Current Supply of Hotel
Accommodation
Coimbatore has a total room inventory of 658 keys spread across 10 hotels, which provide quality accommodation in the city. With respect to the ARR and occupancy, the city has witnessed a steady occupancy of 65% in the historic past with an average room rate of INR2500. A majority of the hotels are situated on Avanashi road namely The Residency Hotel and with the presence of the Hotel CAG Pride being located at Bharathiyar Road, which is the heart of the city.
Miniscule numbers of hotels offer quality accommodation and there is no presence of any major brand observed in the city. Coimbatore has been a tourist destination, alongside; it is also emerging as a business nucleus of Tamil Nadu.
Historically, there have been more midmarket and budget hotels, but the next few years will see the development of branded upscale and midmarket brands. The city is expected to witness a supply of 834 rooms by 2013 in the upscale category where as now only two hotels cater to that category with an inventory amounting to 235 keys.
