At the 59th Annual General Meeting of South India Hotels & Restaurants Association held at Chennai, Vivek Nair was unanimously elected President, SIHRA for 2010 -11.
He succeeds MP Purshothaman of the EMPEE Group, who served for 12 years as President SIHRA. T Nataraajan continues as Honorary Secretary and Chakravarthy as Treasurer, SIHRA.
The VP’s of the 4 Southern regions are Murali Rao, VP – TN & Pondicherry, Ramanatha Bhat, VP – Karnataka, KV Krishnaiah, VP- AP, Jose Dominic, VP – Kerala.
Speaking to the media after the AGM, Nataraajan said that 2010 saw a better occupancy than in 2009 but when compared to 2008 , it was still lower. In South India the total number of approved hotels is expected to increase to 664, with 33,000 rooms by 2012.”
Out of this Tamil Nadu will have 218 hotels, Kerala 186, Andhra Pradesh 102 and Karnataka 158 .
The Hotels in the pipe line in Chennai inlcude eight five-star, one four-star and three three-star hotels. There will also be an additional capacity of 4000 rooms by 2012. Serviced apartments will also contribute with 2200 rooms easing the pressure on hotel rooms. With the availability of more rooms, Chennai is expected to be highly competitive compared to Mumbai and Delhi.
