Hotel Leelaventure is looking for joint venture partners to set up hotels in Agra and Kerala as it looks to complete its network of tourist hotels in India’s famed golden triangle which accounts for the maximum share of foreign tourist arrivals coming to India.

Kerala the home state of the promoter’s family too is increasingly attracting high end tourist traffic from both within and outside the country and is emerging as a focus area for the group.

“We have a 6.5 acre plot in Agra which is sufficient to build a 130 room luxury hotel. We are looking for a joint venture partner who will invest the money to develop the property,” said Vivek Nair, VC & MD at Hotel Leelaventure. The chain, which has hotels in Gurgaon and Delhi, needs a presence in Jaipur and Agra to complete its network of hotels in the critical golden triangle region.

Hotels in these two cities will help offer a seamless network of resorts/palace hotels in key tourist areas supplementing its network of such hotels in Kovalam, Goa and Udaipur. Foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) in India are expected to register a 8.2 per cent compound annualised rate of growth over the period 2010-2019 as per the World Travel & Tourism Council.

“We are also looking for a JV partner to develop luxury villas with an aggregate capacity of 80 rooms on our 20 acre property at Lake Ashtamudi in Kerala,” said Nair. The resort is proposed to be christened The Leela Lake Ashtamudi. While the developer will invest in developing the resort as per plans to be agreed upon with Leela, the hotel major will give design inputs and will manage and market the hotel.

Yassir A Pitalwalla, Rupesh Subhash Janve - Financial Chronicle