Raine & Horne appointed by Indian hotel chain for Middle East expansion
Leading Australian real estate group Raine & Horne has been appointed as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) representatives for Lemon Tree Hotels, a fast-growing Indian chain of business and leisure hotels.
Founded in 2002 by Patu Keswani, a first generation Indian entrepreneur, Lemon Tree Hotels has three brands catering to both luxury and economy travellers – the Lemon Tree Premier, Lemon Tree Hotels and the economy Red Fox Hotel – which it will bring to the GCC region.
The deal comes as Dubai Tourism reported a growth of 17% in Indian visitors in the first quarter of 2016, with over 467,000 visitors between January and March.
Dubai had 4.1 million overnight visitors in the first three months of 2016, a 5.1% increase over the same period last year, backed by strong double digit growth from its top two proximity markets, the GCC and India, according to figures released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).
Raine & Horne’s Dubai office will support eight hotel openings across the GCC region in the next three years, by identifying properties, managing relationships, and executing agreements, according to a media release.
The Lemon Tree group will initially focus on Dubai and Abu Dhabi, before turning its attention to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
“We look forward to leveraging our regional property expertise and network of contacts to roll out the Lemon Tree brand out across the GCC,” said Sanjay Chimnani, managing director of Raine & Horne Dubai.
“There’s a big need for quality affordable or midscale segment hotels and serviced apartments, and they’re key to the development of the region and its objective of having 20 million visitor arrivals by 2020.”
Deputy managing director of Lemon Tree Hotels, Rattan Keswani, outlined his vision for the group’s expansion.
“We’re proud to now have 29 hotels and over 3,200 rooms in 18 cities of India, and another 11 hotels with 1,500 rooms currently under development,” he said.
“Expanding within the GCC was the next logical step in the company’s evolution as the fastest growing hotel company in India, and by 2018 we should have over 4% of hotel rooms in India, which are owned, managed, or under development.”
Raine & Horne Dubai were also appointed in late 2015 by Turkish investment trust Nurol REIT as their lead agency in marketing an extensive AED 3 billion ($1.12 billion) Turkish real estate portfolio to GCC states.