Profile
The Indian Hotels Company and its subsidiaries are collectively known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, recognised as one of Asia's largest and finest hotel company. Incorporated by the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji N Tata, the company opened its first property, The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Bombay, in 1903. The Taj, a symbol of Indian hospitality, completed its centenary year in 2003. Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces comprises 59 hotels at 40 locations across India with an additional 17 international hotels in the Maldives, Mauritius, Malaysia, United Kingdom, United States of America, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

The company has had a long-standing commitment to the continued development of the Indian tourism and hospitality industry. From the 1970s through the 1990s, the Taj played an important role in launching several of India's key tourist destinations. Working in tandem with the Indian government, the Taj developed resorts and retreats while the government developed roads and railways to India's hidden treasures.

Areas of business
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is grouped into Luxury, Leisure and Business categories to provide consistency across the different hotels and standardise products and services.

As early as 1974, the Taj opened India's first international beach resort — Fort Aguada Beach Resort — in Goa. Today, Goa is one of South Asia's most popular beach resort destinations.

The presence of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces internationally has been developed through a network of Taj regional sales and PR offices in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and the USA.

During the past year Taj Hotels strengthened its presence in the Indian Ocean rim. Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Mauritius, opened its doors to guests. End-2005 saw the unveiling of the entirely renovated and upgraded Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Maldives.

Taj Hotels further expanded its global footprint by securing management contracts at Palm Island, Jumeirah in Dubai, Langkawi in Malaysia and Thimpu in Bhutan. The most significant addition to the portfolio has been The Pierre, the iconic landmark hotel on New York's Fifth Avenue.

It operates Taj Air, a luxury private jet operation with state-of-the-art Falcon 2000 aircrafts designed by Dassault Aviation, France; and Taj Yachts, two 3-bedroom luxury yachts which can be used by guests in Mumbai and Kochi, in Kerala.

It also operates Taj Sats Air Catering, the largest airline catering service in South Asia, as a joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.

Taj Wellington Mews Luxury Residences is a complex of 80 luxurious serviced apartments in South Mumbai. This is a new foray in the service apartments category.

Additionally, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces established the Indian Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad in 1993. The institute offers a three-year diploma, designed with the help of international faculty and has affiliations with several American and European programmes.

Associate companies and joint ventures
The Indian Hotels Company is the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces' parent company, owning around a third of the group's inventory of rooms. The balance of room inventory is with associate companies and joint ventures.

Corporate social responsibility
The key theme of corporate social responsibility at the company is to build livelihoods with a clear focus on women, craftsmen and artisans; and the education of children. Employees of all hotels and the corporate offices contribute and actively participate in numerous on-going events and projects. The core competencies of the hospitality business have been utilised to make these themes truly relevant and meaningful.

Contact
Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
Oxford House
15 / 17 N. F. Street
Apollo Bunder
Mumbai 400 001
India

Business Development
Sumit Guha
Phone: +91 (22) 6665 1113
Email: sumit.guha@tajhotels.com

Human Resource
H N Shrinivas
Phone: +91 (22) 6665 1202
Email: hn.shrinivas@tajhotels.com

Purchase
Pradip Rao
Phone: +91 (22) 6665 1101
Email: pradip.rao@tajhotels.com