Tata Group unveils first Ginger Hotel in Goa

Panaji, July 31 (UNI) The India Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) today unveiled its first Genext, Smart Basic hotel chain ''Ginger'' in the city.

Chief minister Digambar Kamat formally inaugurated the 137-room hotel.

Speaking to mediapersons on the occasion, chief executive officer Prabhat Pani of Roots Corporation Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of the IHCL group, said the Company plans to open similar hotels in Indore, Nagpur, Surat and Rajkot, while agreements have been signed for 14 others.

''There is a 1,30,000 rooms shortage of hotel accommodation for tourists, foreign and domestic in the country, as against the existing 1,52,000 rooms,'' he said.

He said at the sametime, the inflow of tourists from abroad was likely to jump to one million every year from now, as against 4.5 million in 2005 and five million in 2007.

The tourism sector, because of various factors following globalisation of economy, was growing at the rate of 8.8 per cent in India as against five per cent abroad, he said.

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