Itdc Defers Marketing Tieups With Foreign Chains Groups

The Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has deferred its proposed management and marketing tie-ups with foreign hotel chains till such time that the government firms up its divestment strategy.

Disclosing this,officials said the company was pressing ahead with its plan which included demolition and reconstruction of some of its 3-star hotels and joint ventures with state tourism corporations for establishing new hotels. This will be kicked off in the current year with the demolition of Lodhi Hotel and its replacement at a cost of Rs 96 crore with a 300-plus capacity 5-star hotel.

The company, as per the provisional figures, has posted handsome profits in 1996-97 and is confident of funding the new operations out of its internal resources. The profit before tax for the year is put at Rs 74.34 crore as compared with Rs 71.65 crore in 1995-96 and Rs 43.17 crore in 1994-95. The profits were Rs 10.05 crore in 1992-93, Rs 24.02 crore in 1993-94 and Rs 43.17 crore in 1994-95. The company has an authorised share capital of Rs 75 crore and paid-up capital of Rs 67.52 crore. With the company ploughing back a large chunk of its annual profits in recent years, the reserves have gone up to Rs 159 crore at March-end .

 

Meanwhile, it has also embarked on a major human resource development programme which include on-the-job training, nominations to professional courses and the conduct of special courses by external agencies. In the last fiscal year over 7,000 employees in the organisation were put through this regimen. Officials claim that the productivity per employee has increased from 3.83 lakh in 1995-96 to 4.02 lakh in 1996-97. The company is also awaiting the governments decision on renewal of its contract to man the duty-free shops . The government is considering the option of offering these to private ventures. If it rgets the go ahead, ITDC will have to renew its consultancy tie-up with GEBR Heinemann of Germany.