Reuters

Mumbai: Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd will expand through more leases and management contracts rather than outright property purchases, its top official said.

“We have to be more cautious because of the market,” Chender Baljee, chairman and managing director told Reuters on the phone, on Tuesday, referring to slowing business travel in India.

Foreign tourist traffic in India slowed to a 1.8% growth in October from a year ago from double-digit rise in the last five years as a global financial crisis took its toll.

Expansion “plans are still there. We are looking at more management contracts and leases,” Baljee said.

Royal Orchid will start operation service apartments in Whitefield, Bangalore this month, which will be its twelfth project, he said. A 104-room hotel, under the ‘Central´ brand name will come up in Ahmedabad in October 2009, he added.

The hotelier has less that Rs2.5-3 billion of debt on its books, he added. “We have very little debt on our books so we are talking to banks. We have the capacity to raise debt.”