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The Indian Hotels Company Limited
Indian Hotels Company Limited
Company typePublic
BSE: 500850
NSE: INDHOTEL
ISININE053A01029
IndustryHospitality
Founded1903; 121 years ago (1903)
FounderJamsetji Tata
HeadquartersExpress Towers, Nariman Point,
Mumbai, Maharashtra
,
India
Number of locations
100 Hotels
Key people
ProductsHotels and Resorts
Revenue₹4,065 crore (US$490 million)[1] (2017)
₹−63 crore (US$−7.5 million)[1] (2017)
Number of employees
25,000 (2017)
ParentTata Group

Taj Hotels is a chain of luxury hotels and a subsidiary of The Indian Hotels Company Limited[2] - headquartered at Express Towers, Nariman Point in Mumbai.[3] Incorporated by the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata, in 1903,[4][5] the company is a part of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business conglomerates. The company employed over 13,000 people in the year 2010.[6][7]

As of 2018, the company operates a total of 100 hotels and hotel-resorts, with 84 across India and 16 in other countries, including Bhutan, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK, USA and Zambia[5]

History

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839 – 1904)

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, founder of the Tata Group, opened the Taj Mahal Palace, a hotel in Mumbai (formerly called Bombay) overlooking the Arabian Sea, on 16 December 1903. It was the first Taj property and the first Taj hotel. There are several anecdotal stories about why Tata opened the Taj hotel. According to a story, he decided to open the hotel after an incident involving racial discrimination at the Watson's Hotel in Mumbai, where he was refused entry as the hotel permitted only Europeans.[8] Hotels that accepted only European guests were very common across British India then. According to another story he opened the hotel when one of his friends expressed disgust over the hotels that were present in Bombay then. But a more plausible reason was advanced by Lovat Fraser, a close friend of the Tata and one of the early directors of the IHCL group, that the idea had long been in his mind and that he had made a study on the subject. He did not have any desire to own a hotel but he wanted to attract people to India and to improve Bombay. It is said that Jamsetji Tata had travelled to places like London, Paris, Berlin and Düsseldorf to arrange for materials and pieces of art, furniture and interior artefacts for his hotel.[9] The Taj group has since then developed and flourished, under the Tata Group.

The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai is the first hotel of Taj, opened in the year 1903

In 1974, the group opened India's first international five star deluxe beach resort, the Fort Aguada Beach Resort in Goa. In 1970s, the Taj Group also began its business in metropolitan hotels, opening the five-star deluxe hotel, Taj Coromandel in Chennai, in 1974, acquiring an equity interest and operating contract for the Taj President (now Vivanta by Taj - President), a business hotel in Mumbai, in 1977, and also opening the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi in 1978.

The group has been converting royal palaces in India into luxury hotels since the 1970s. The first palace to be converted into a Taj luxury hotel was the Lake Palace in Udaipur, in 1971. Other examples include the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur, Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad and Nadesar Palace in Varanasi.

File:UmaidBhawan Exterior 1.jpg
A part of the Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur is a Taj luxury hotel and it is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World

In 1980, the Taj group opened its first hotel outside India, the Taj Sheba Hotel in Sana'a, in Yemen and in the late 1980s, acquired interests in the St. James' Court Hotel (now comprising Taj 51 Buckingham Gate Suites and Residences and St. James' Court, A Taj Hotel) in London. In 1984, the Taj group acquired, under a license agreement, each of the Taj West End in Bangalore, Taj Connemara (now Vivanta by Taj - Connemara) in Chennai and Savoy Hotel in Ooty. With the opening of the Taj West End in Bangalore, the Taj Group made its foray into Bangalore. The five star deluxe hotel, Taj Bengal in Kolkata, was opened in the year 1989, and with this the Taj group became the only hotel chain in India with a presence in the six major metropolitan cities of India, namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Concurrently with the expansion of its luxury hotel chain in the major metropolitan cities, the Taj Group also expanded its business hotels division in the major metropolitan and large secondary cities in India. During the 1990s, the Taj Group continued to expand its geographic and market coverage in India. It developed specialized operations (such as wildlife lodges) and consolidated its position in established markets through the upgrading of existing properties and development of new properties. Taj also set up the Taj Kerala Hotels and Resorts Limited in the early 1990s along with the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation.[10]

Ten hotels of the Taj group are members of the Leading Hotels of the World.[11]

Notable hotels

Two hotels of the Taj group, namely Rambagh Palace in Jaipur and the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai, were ranked in 2013 by Condé Nast Traveler among its "Top 100 Hotels and Resorts in the World".[12] In late 2013, the Indian Traveller magazine ranked Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur and Taj Exotica Resort & Spa in Maldives as numbers 34 and 98, respectively, on its list of "100 Best Hotels & Resorts".[13] Condé Nast Traveler also ranked the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai as number 13 on its list of "Gold Standard Hotels" in 2014.[14]

Other ventures

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Indian Hotels Company Profit & Loss account, Indian Hotels Company Financial Statement & Accounts" (PDF). Tag Hotels.
  2. ^ "IHCL to reserve Taj tag only for luxury units - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  3. ^ "Corporate Office". Corporate. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
  4. ^ "Contact Information" (select "Corporate Office"). Taj Hotels. Retrieved 14 November 2012. "Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces Oxford House 15/17 N.F. Road Apollo Bunder Mumbai 400,001 India"
  5. ^ a b "The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL)". tata.co.in. Tata group. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  6. ^ "Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces: Private Company Information - BusinessWeek". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  7. ^ 21 Jun 2010, 12.35AM IST,ET Bureau (21 June 2010). "Crowne Plaza, Dow Corning & Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 15 September 2010.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "From Parsee priests to profits: say hello to Tata - Asia, World". The Independent. 1 February 2007. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  9. ^ http://www.hotelassociationofindia.com/HJ_Oct-Dec_09-Final.pdf
  10. ^ "About Us". Corporate.
  11. ^ "Hotel List". lhw.com. Leading Hotels of The World. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  12. ^ "Top 100 Hotels & Resorts in the World". cntraveler.com. 15 October 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  13. ^ "100 Best Hotels & Resorts". internationaltravellermag.com. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  14. ^ "GOLD STANDARD HOTELS 2014". cntraveller.com. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
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