Hospitality industry outlook looks quite strong: Chandrasekaran at IHCL AGM

The hospitality industry is expected to do well going forward barring unforseen situations, and occupancy of Indian Hotels Company Ltd is expected to rise, company's chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Thursday.

Answering shareholders' queries at the Indian Hotels Company's annual general meeting on how the company will tap the market, Chandrasekaran said: We are having an expansion plan. By 2025 we want to touch 300 properties. Our rooms will increase to in excess of 35,000 rooms and the company has been spending money from the employee welfare fund to support the employees' families.

He informed that there are no plans to raise further capital by the company.

"We have no plan to raise any more capital. I think the company is adequately capitalised and I believe that we will generate the right cash flows to be able to support the growth and there is no plan on the part of the company to get into warehousing space."

Sharing expansion plans for north-east, he said there are plans to open 7 more hotels in the region from 3 at present, taking the total number of hotels to 10 in the next two years.

Sharing future outlook for the industry, Chandrasekaran said: "We believe that the industry will do well barring any unforeseen situations that come. Currently the outlook looks quite strong. Our occupancy last year was 49 per cent standalone and 53 per cent on a consolidated basis. But this year we are averaging in the last 2-2.5 months above 65 per cent. So the occupancy is expected to increase and we believe that the industry will do well.