GIM brings cheers to hoteliers

Most hotels have been booked out; Govt to bear cost of VIP visitors cost and travel

The State Government has tied up with four hotels to accommodate its VIP guests, a majority of whom are industrialists, during the two-day event.

Besides, it has roped in 27 star hotels in the City to accommodate investors, landing in Bangalore from different places.

Many enquiries
A random check at the reservation desks in a few hotels showed that a majority of the base category rooms have been booked for the two days. There have been many enquiries for bookings. According to the reservation wing of Hotel Lalit Ashok all base category rooms have been booked. Now the investors are enquiring for high end rooms.
A staffer of the sales wing in Taj Group of Hotels said the bookings have been good and they were receiving many enquiries everyday. According to the government website, room tariffs in the base category vary from Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 per day.

3,000 people expected
According to Karnataka Udyoga Mitra (KUM), as many as 1,500 people have registered to take part in the event. The number is expected to go up to 3,000 in the next few days. The government has invited about 45 noted industrialists from India and abroad to attend the event.Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal, Kumaramangalam Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Azim Premji of Wipro, Vijay Mallya of UB group, Sajjan Jindal of JSW Steels, Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys and Devi Prasad Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya are among the guests invited by the government.

KUM Managing Director K S Shivaswamy said the government had booked rooms for guests in Windsor Manor, Taj group of hotels, Goldfinch and Hotel Atria.
Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani said the government would bear the cost of accommodation an conveyance of VVIP guests during their stay in Bangalore for the event. The number of VVIPs would be finalised only two days before the event.
The hotels would be offering 30 per cent discount for the government as in case of any bulk booking.

Rs 30 cr expenditure
“The total expenditure for the event would be around Rs 30 crore. It is not a burden on the government because we will get back the amount in the form of interest by depositing Rs 700 crore received in the form of advance for land allotment from different industries in banks,” the minister said.

The government has launched a website - http://www.advantagekarnataka.com for the global investors meet. The website hosts contact details of hotels in Bangalore as also room tariff. The visitors can can book accommodations on-line.
Besides, the visiting industrialists can book cabs through the website links.

A vacant site
With just six days left for the inauguration of the Global Investors Meet (GIM), the website dedicated for the event has remained incomplete.
If investors spread across globe log on to the government website to know about the investment opportunities in Karnataka, the website doesn’t offer any details.
And yet, the private agency has received Rs two crore for developing and managing the information-deficient website (http://www.advantagekarnataka.com).