IHG signed a management agreement with Lotus Trans Travel to open four hotels in India under the Holiday Inn brand.
The Holiday Inn Bodhgaya in Bihar, the Holiday Inn Kushinagar, the Holiday Inn Gorakhpur and the Holiday Inn Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh are scheduled to open between 2020 and 2023, and add more than 450 guestrooms to IHG’s inventory.
The hotels in Bodhgaya, Kushinagar and Shravasti will be renovated as a part of the agreement. Meanwhile, the partners will develop the Holiday Inn Gorakhpur as a new-build hotel.
The hotels' locations are some of the main pilgrimage centers for Buddhism and form what's known as the Buddhist Circuit in India. IHG is the first international operator to establish a presence in the Buddhist Circuit with this signing.
“This signing adds to the rapidly growing presence of our well-recognized Holiday Inn brand across the country. The Holiday Inn brand family is IHG’s growth engine in India, and this agreement is in line with our development strategy for the South West Asia region," Sudeep Jain, VP of development in Southwest Asia for IHG, said in a statement.
The signing also aligns with IHG's plans to expand across India. It follows the signings of the 150-room Holiday Inn Agra MG Road in July and the 110-room Holiday Inn Resort Kolkata NH6 in June.
Following renovations, IHG will reopen the Hotel Marina Agra later this year as the Holiday Inn, marking its first hotel in Agra.
IHG's second Holiday Inn in Kolkata is being done with SDB Developers. Ninety of the Uluberia property's guestrooms are scheduled to open by the end of this year.