4,500 hotel rooms to check into Ahmedabad

With the dark clouds of recession seemingly vanishing, the hospitality industry in Ahmedabad is about to witness the addition of another 4,500 rooms in Ahmedabad by 2011. This means another 12 to 15 hotels in the city and its periphery.

And the share of budged hotels in the three-star and four-star category will be around 60 per cent of the total.

The Hotel and Restaurant Association (H&RA),Western India has predicted that another one lakh hotel rooms are going to be added in the country. Of these, 5,000-odd rooms will come up in Gujarat itself by 2012.

Commenting on the position, the chairman of the diamond jubilee committee of H&RA - Western India, Sunit Kothari told DNA "There is a genuine demand for budge hotels in Gujarat because of industrial growth of the city and state."

The Gujarat Hotels Association and H&RA has also sent its suggestion to the Gujarat tourism secretary to offer them certain exemption on things like electricity duty and natural gas among others.

President of the Gujarat Hotels Association (GHA) and chairman of H&RA - Gujarat chapter, Narendra Somani said, "We need big exemptions to sustain growth. This will also help us to offer products at an economic rate to our guests/clients."

Tulsi Tekwani, chairman of Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association said that the hotel guests will definitely gain from the same.