India Inc. at Digital Inspiration

Posted: 12 Jun 2008 01:56 AM CDT

One of the first and largest amusement parks in India, Essel Group's 'Essel World' is drawing interest from Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment.

Reliance Entertainment wants to create entertainment zones around the country and Essel World fits perfectly into its fold due to its suitable location and nationwide popularity.

Even Essel Group has been considering exiting the venture due to various reasons. Firstly, the returns are insignificant due to high capital expenditure costs and then there is growing competition from malls and multiplexes.

Similarly due to protest, Zee group was not able to scale up the size of its entertainment venture leading to disinterest in the venture.

Recently, Reliance Entertainment also struck a deal to build Giant Wheels across India.

If indeed, ADAG buys Essel World, then most likely the prefix Essel would be replaced either by 'Big' or 'Reliance'. source

ADAG eyes Zee’s Essel World - Digital Inspiration | FAQ | RSS

Taj Hotels shifts focus to luxury hotels

Posted: 12 Jun 2008 01:07 AM CDT

105 year old Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces having 59 hotels in the luxury, leisure and business segment is going for a rebranding of its properties to preserve the exclusivity of the Taj brand.

All hotels under the luxury segment would have the prefix 'Taj' to it while the leaisure and business hotels would have a new brand name and endorsed using the Taj name.

Initially the rebranding would be done for Indian hotels and later extended to overseas ones. The move will help customers of Taj Hotels in distinguishing the hotel and relate with the features of the hotel.

This move by Taj Hotels is much akin to global practices as followed by Starwood, Marriott and Carlson hotels. Even Indian chains like Oberoi and ITC Hotels have separate identity for different hotel segments.

The move makes sense for Taj too as it gets major revenues from its luxury properties and this step may help it to concentrate its brand and business on these specific properties. via

Taj Hotels shifts focus to luxury hotels - Digital Inspiration | FAQ | RSS