Hilton Hotels plans to open 300 new hotels in India

SINGAPORE : Hilton Hotels, one of the world's largest hospitality chains, plans to add 1,000 new properties outside North America over the next 10 years.

Of these, 300 hotels will be in the Asia Pacific, mainly in China and India.

Hilton wants to tap into the burgeoning growth in the travel industry in this region.

Hilton presently runs two hotels in Singapore - the Conrad and the Hilton.

And the company says its expansion strategy for the region will be similar to how it operates here - that is, it will manage the hotels but will not own the actual properties.

Hilton plans to add 300 new hotels in the Asia Pacific region over the next decade.

Koos Klein, Area President - Asia Pacific, Hilton Hotels, said: "The advantage is that we can grow much faster if you don't have to own. We operate about 3000 hotels at the moment, worldwide in 80 countries - 500,000 rooms. We've got about 800 in the pipeline, and growing very fast. And for any hotel company in the world, it's impossible to own all the real estate themselves."

Asia Pacific international tourist arrivals grew 7.6 percent last year, compared to 4.5 percent globally - while tourism is forecast to add US$110 billion in sales for the region over the next three years.

Hilton is targeting China, India, Japan and Australia as its key growth markets.

It does not have immediate plans for new projects in Singapore, but says it expects to introduce some of its other hotel brands here in the next few years.

Mr Klein said: "We think the potential for Singapore is quite large. There's a very active government approach here to promote tourism, with the integrated resorts and all the other initiatives being taken. Room rates are on the up a bit - they were traditionally very low, and actually on the low side for an investor to develop a new hotel and go through the cost of constructing a new hotel.

"We're now getting into a situation where there are almost not enough hotel rooms, and where the room rates are going up so it's starting to become viable to build new hotels."

Hilton also owns hotel brand names such as the upscale Doubletree chains, and the economy Hampton Inn chains. - CNA/ch
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