Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, the Indian hospitality group, wants to put up a hotel in Johannesburg and use South Africa as a springboard for expansion into Central- and Southern Africa, says Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, Ajoy Misra.
 
For Johannesburg, the group is looking at all options: new hotels; taking over existing properties; fully owned hotels; and joint ventures.  
 
He says the Tata Group, the company's mother firm, considers its relationship with South Africa of strategic importance and has identified Africa as a key destination for setting up hotels. The company's African footprint to date is limited to hotels in Cape Town and Lusaka, Zambia. "South Africa is a vibrant market place. The World Cup has given you great exposure. As Africa develops, South Africa will lead its emergence." 
 
Misra says Taj Hotels aims to become a global brand, which has seen it expanding regionally and elsewhere in key source markets. Other key expansion areas are China - where Taj already has two projects - and the Middle East - where it has four new projects in various stages of completion.
 
The group currently has 104 hotels across four brands, the bulk based in India (67 Taj Hotels and 22 Ginger economy hotels), the balance being in the US, UK, Dubai, Australia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Africa and Bhutan. 
 
Misra says Taj Hotels is weathering the global recession despite a lag of rates and projects that were delayed in the Middle East. He says Taj properties in India relied 50% on a robust domestic corporate market. Business in most of Europe was slow, and the UK and US were under pressure, but performance improved significantly in the last two quarters of the year.
 
This, he says, shows that the international corporate market is recovering. "Demand is back, whether in New York, Boston or India," he says. The company has a market mix of 65% corporate and 35% leisure.