IHCL has extended its original timeframe of launching 50 hotels of its new Gateway brand by four years to 2015.
Gateway’s director for operations, Monica Lakhmana told the Press Trust of India that IHCL is planning to open 13 Gateways by 2012 and then scale-up operations to 50 by 2015.
This is a step back from IHCL managing director Raymond Bickson’s claim last year of launching 50 Gateways by 2011. “By 2011, we plan to have 50 properties under this brand,” said Bickson at the brand’s launch in September last year.
The maths added up to converting 16 existing Taj properties to Gateway and signing up 10 new hotels to take the tally to 26. Another 10 properties were under active negotiation at the time.
IHCL has 19 of this premium mid-market brand at present.
Lakhmana was quoted as saying that IHCL plans the balance more properties but by 2015.
“We are looking at Tier II and other smaller cities as they are growing and also plan to expand in places that attract more tourists,” Lakhmana said.
