Jumeirah Group plans India entry

The Jumeirah Group, Dubai's global hospitality company, will enter the Indian hotel market as part of its global expansion plans, a senior executive said.

"With the growing international profile of the country, key gateway cities in India, such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Goa, are becoming important for business as well as leisure travellers. We are encouraged by the growth of the Indian hospitality industry and see the country as an opportunity to continue growing our global brand presence out of our home base in Dubai," Executive Chairman Gerald Lawless told Emirates Business in an e-mailed statement.

"Jumeirah remains committed to an ambitious expansion strategy and we are therefore looking at key letterhead and gateway cities as well as aspirational resort destinations around the world. Our long-term goal is to continue to grow our global luxury brand with a development plan of 60 hotels and resorts, under construction or in operation, by 2012," he said.

Lawless had told this newspaper in an interview in February that the 60-hotel plan "remains achievable, even in this challenging environment".

"We expect market revival by the time they are due to open. By 2012, 45 per cent of our hotels would be in the Gulf, about 30 per cent in Asia-Pacific, and the rest in Europe and the Americas," he said.

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