Hotel industry in South on cloud nine

Chennai, Sep 23: For the third successive year, hotel industry in South is fairing well in terms of profitablity and 133 new projects are lined up in the southern states for implementation in next few years, according to South India Hotels and Restaurants Association (SIHRA).

Addressing a press conference here, after getting elected unanimously as President of SIHRA for the third successive year, M P Purusothaman said the Union Ministry of Tourism had given approval for 133 new projects in South.

While 30 projects would come up in Karnataka, 61 would come up in Kerala, 20 in Andhra Pradesh, 18 in Tamil Nadu and four in Union Territory of Puducherry, he said adding these projects ranged from one to five star hotel categories.

''There is a lot of optimism in the hotel industry and the hoteliers are keen on implementing the projects, not only in the metros but also in other tier II cities,'' he said.

In Chennai alone, 2400 new five star rooms would be created by the year 2010, he said.

Quoting a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said with the advent of IT industry, Tamil Nadu alone required about 4000 rooms by 2010.

Besides the four southern states, Puducherry was also witnessing a boom in hotel construction, he said adding that the first six months in this fiscal, considered ''off season'', was fairly good and the second season was likely to be very good.

UNI