Hospitality Group Accor has unveiled plans to expand its presence in India with the opening of 30 new properties in the next three to five years, as reported by PTI via The Times of India.

The new additions, which will be developed by local partners, will operate under Accor’s nine brands in India, including Mercure, Fairmont, Novotel and Pulman.

Accor senior vice-president of operations for India and South Asia Puneet Dhawan said: "Currently, nine brands are present in India out of the 40-plus (global) brands, but the scale and the diversity India has and the growing middle class or the growing spending power in India, we believe there's a market for many more of Accor brands that could be introduced into India."

The new additions are expected to open in cities such as Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Mohali, Chandigarh and Amritsar.

The hotel chain plans to introduce more brands in the country to serve various types of guests.

The lifestyle brands that could be launched in the country include Swissôtel or Mövenpick.

Dhawan added: “I think the pandemic kind of opened these tier two, tier three markets because the rates that they were able to demand are actually higher than the cities like Delhi and Mumbai and that has encouraged developers or investors to develop in these local markets.”

He also stated that the additional brands that are set to launch in India are anticipated to reach the market earlier and these include conversion brands such as Handwritten (Collection).

Currently, Accor’s portfolio in India includes 61 hotels under its nine brands, with a total of 11,500 operational rooms.

Last week, Accor opened its first Swissôtel hotel in Kyrgyzstan.