TCC Land budgets Bt74.2 bn for new hotels through 2022
TCC LAND ASSET WORLD CO, property arm of beverage tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, plans to invest more than Bt74.2 billion to develop new hotels in Thailand from now through 2022, chief executive officer Soammapat Traisorat said.
The investment will boost its hospitality income to 60 per cent of its total revenue by 2022, with the rest coming from retail and office space, he said.
Last year, the company’s revenue from hospitality business was around Bt8 billion, or about 40 per cent of estimated total revenue of Bt20 billion. The remaining 60 per cent was from retail and office buildings.
He said TCC Land planned to invest aggressively in hospitality business as it foresees Thailand becoming more of a regional travel hub now that the Asean Economic Community is in effect, especially for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (the MICE market).
The company is suspending expansion in the residential market, and will invest less in retail properties because of limited land availability. As a result, the company will focus more on the hospitality business.
Up to Bt14.2 billion will be spent to develop four new hotels that will be managed by Marriott International Group, and Bt60 billion for more than 10 hotels nationwide managed by other chains, deputy CEO Wallapa Traisorat said.
Marriott hotels
The four Marriott hotels will be on Surawong Road, opening next year; on the Chao Phraya riverfront in 2019; in Pattaya in 2020; and in Bangkok’s Lumpini area. The Lumpini hotel will sit on 88 rai (14 hectares) of land formerly used for the Pre-Cadet School, and will open in 2020.
The business plan for the other 10 or more hotels has not been finalised, but they will be in Thailand only, she said.
TCC Land Asset World’s investments overseas will from now on be managed by Singapore-based Frasers Centrepoint Ltd (FCL).
“We have continued to manage some of our hotel overseas such as in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China. But the new investments abroad now will be expanded by our subsidiary in Singapore,” she said.
At present, TCC Land Asset World manages 40 hotels in Thailand and seven other countries. By the end of this year it will have 43 hotels with 10,000 rooms.
Three new hotels worth a total of Bt8.8 billion will launch this year and will be managed by Marriott. They are Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa opening tomorrow, Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa opening on April 9, and Bangkok Marriott Queen Park Sukhumvit opening in July.
Karl Hudson, Marriott International’s vice president for Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Japan, said Thailand had a lot of potential for the company’s business expansion in Asean.
He said Marriott planned to increase |the number of rooms in Thailand under its management from 3,500 this year to 6,500 by 2018, “as we see demand in both the tourist and MICE markets rising in this country”.
