TOPHOTELPROJECTS has revealed the data that 159 new first class and luxury hotels with about 29.068 rooms are under construction or in development.

As a traditional travel destination India has to re-focus on new qualities. After partially significant declines of overnight stays by foreign guests – global reporting about series of rapes especially of women from western countries has damaged the tourism enormous – recently the number of tourist arrivals has increased by six percent.

Therefore more and more modern top hotels are in the pipeline now. In total currently 159 new first class and luxury hotels with about 29.068 rooms are under construction or in development. This data has been revealed by TOPHOTELPROJECTS, the worldwide leading provider of global b2b hotel data.

Domestic tourism in India has increased strongly by 10 percent during the past three years. Especially branded mid-scale hotels – decent quality for affordable rates – are in demand for the growing middle class. The Indian government plans to encourage the business with international tourists and therefore relaxes the visa regulations with further countries.

Also investors already kept an eye on efficient working budget hotel chains and hotel booking portals such as fabhotels.com (former Casa2Inns), Oyo Rooms and stayzilla.com.

Hotel companies like InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) are more and more focussing India, which is rich in monuments and dreamscapes: recently the tenth Holiday Inn Hotel was opened, a 127 room property in Chandigarh.

The US Company Marriott is establishing its top brand JW Marriott. In Mumbai (image)the second luxury hotel with 585 rooms recently opened close to the international airport. Main features of the hotel are the spacious meeting facilities as well as the luxury spa area.

In autumn Starwood Hotels & Resorts will open a high-end hotel by its St. Regis brand in Mumbai. For this will the exciting Palladium Hotel undergo an extensive refurbishment and extension to become a top hotel with 386 luxury rooms and suites, five restaurants, a club lounge, the bars, pool, fitness area and meeting spaces on 38 floors.

With 37 new properties in the pipeline Starwood Hotels is expanding its portfolio in India (currently 43 hotels). Among others the W Retreat & Spa Goa, The Westin Kolkata, Sheraton Hyderabad, Le Meridien Nagpur and the Aloft New Delhi Aerocity are under construction.