(JAIPUR, INDIA) -- Interstate Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: IHR), which calls itself the largest independent hotel management company in the U.S., announces its India-based joint venture management company, JHM Interstate Hotels India, will open its first managed hotel in India, the 115-room Four Points® by Sheraton Jaipur, in City Square, Jaipur in October.
IHR officials say it will be the second Four Points hotel to open in the country and the first project developed by Duet India Hotels Limited, a U.K.-based, real estate investment group dedicated solely to hotel investment and development in India.
Interstate and JHM Hotels, its JV partner, have an equity interest in Duet, which provides JHM Interstate Hotels India the first opportunity to manage the hotels developed or acquired by Duet.
"With the opening of this hotel, we will add a sixth country outside of the United States, our first in the Asia Pacific region, to our management portfolio as we continue to extend our reach internationally," says Thomas F. Hewitt, IHR chairman and chief executive officer.
"India remains one of the world's fastest growing economies, with projected growth of 5 to 6 percent this year despite the global economic downturn."
Jaipur is part of India's Golden Triangle, along with Delhi and Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, and has long been a major tourist mecca.
Hewitt says "more recently, the city, which is the capital of the state Rajasthan, has become a hotbed of economic development activity, which is decreasing its reliance on leisure business alone and attracting growing numbers of business travelers with a need for lodging."
In June, Jaipur opened a new international airport, dramatically improving domestic and international access to the city. "We believe the Four Points brand will appeal to both travel groups, with its exceptional amenities, comfortable and stylish decor and value pricing," Hewitt adds.
(NEW DELHI, INDIA) -- India's largest property firm, DLF, has scaled down ambitions in the hotel business, following an economic downturn, to focus on core areas of building homes, offices and shops, according to the Economic Times of New Delhi.
DLF is planning various options to fully or partly exit from the international luxury hotel chain Amanresorts, which the developer had purchased at the peak of the economic boom in 2007.
The company also has held preliminary talks with at least two Indian hotel chains, "but a huge gap between the buyer's and seller's expectations has played spoilsport for concrete deal discussions," according to the Economic Times.
Adrian Zecha
The company is known to charge one of the highest average daily room rates that sometimes exceed US $600. The hotel company owns and manages 23 small luxury resorts worldwide and will open a new resort in Utah, USA, in October, according to the company's Web site. It operates three resorts in India--one in New Delhi and two in Rajasthan.
(TORONTO, CANADA) -- Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has received four awards in the North American category from the World Travel organization.
The awards cite Fairmont as Canada's Leading Golf Resort, Canada's Leading Ski Resort, Canada's Leading Business Hotel and North America's Leading Golf Resort. The Leading Hotel Brand for North America went to Marriott Hotels & Resorts, and North America's Leading Destination went to Miami.
In the Central America categories, Hotel Parador Resort & Spa located in the area of Manuel Antonio National Park, in Punta Quepos, Costa Rica, was named Central America's Leading Hotel. Cancun Convention & Visitors Bureau picked up Central America's Leading Destination award.
(NEW DELHI, INDIA) -- Hotelier Capt. C.P. Krishnan Nair, chairman of The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts, has received the Giants International Award for excellence in business and industry.
"It seems just like yesterday when I started my purposeful journey just eight decades ago, and now I feel proud to stand tall with the recognition the Giants award brings with it," Nair says.
Giants International is an India-based international service organization that has, since 1972, endeavored to resolve some of country's pressing problems by creating projects and programs in the areas of family planning, low-cost housing, consumerism, flood relief work, earthquake relief work and other public service activities.
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