Warburg Pincus invests Rs 280 crores [US $ 60 million] in Lemon Tree Hotels
Lemon Tree Hotels recently announced that Warburg Pincus, the leading global private equity firm, is investing Rs 210 crores [US $ 45 million] in the company. The investment will be used to further expand the Lemon Tree network and enhance the company's pan-India presence. Warburg Pincus is also investing Rs 70 crores [US $ 15 million] in Red Fox Hotels, a new company being promoted by Patu Keswani, CMD, Lemon Tree Hotels. The company proposes to set-up limited service, economy hotels across India. The first three Red Fox Hotels, aggregating 500 rooms and targeted at extremely price conscious business and leisure traveller, are under development and are expected to open in Mumbai, Jaipur and Hyderabad by late 2008.

Unison Hotels to set up properties in major cities
In line with its major expansion plans, Unison Hotels intends to set up 5-star business hotels in major cities of the country including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. They intend to set up premium business hotels in the country's premier business locations. Expected to open within 36 months, the properties will offer luxurious experience to the customers. "Since the target customer is the corporate, the hotels will definitely provide good conferencing facilities and meeting rooms. Also, they will definitely comprise good spa and health facilities for the health conscious corporate customers," Umesh Saraf, MD, Unison Hotels, informed .

Celebrities to endorse ITDC's Sound and Light Shows
ITDC will promote its Sound and Light Shows across the country through Indian film industry celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta. The film stars will provide the background narration for SALS, which is now being set up in cities like Madurai, Chandigarh and Haridwar. Talks are underway with Padma Shri Aamir Raza Hussain to set up new SALS in Delhi, along with his moving theatre concept. All these initiatives are part of ITDC's aggressive expansion plans in the capital.

Norms relaxed for global charter flights
Cruising forward on plans to unshaken decades old restrictions on the civil aviation sector, India has now decided to further liberalise its tourist charter flight policy by allowing even Indian citizens to be on-board such chartered flights. In addition, overseas travellers to and from India are now even allowed to book a one-way seat on these chartered flights, but only for the first leg of the outbound operation and the last leg of the inbound operation. Also, in a bid to promote domestic tourism, the government has decided to permit the charter flights to be operated to any airport in India without any limitations on frequency of flights or size of the aircraft. However, overseas tourists flying into India on these chartered flights will not be permitted to take a scheduled flight out of the country, except in case of medical emergencies. The government has also decided that the embarkation point to India and the final destination out of India need not be the same for these chartered flights.