* Still committed to expansion plan despite downturn
* Aims to tap growing tourism demand in India
By Tamara Walid
DUBAI, April 7 (Reuters) - Dubai-based Jumeirah Group is still aiming to manage 60 hotels by 2012 and is looking at expanding into India to tap into growing tourism demand in the region, a company executive said on Tuesday.
"We are ... currently involved in a number of discussions within the subcontinent," Executive Chairman Gerald Lawless said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Jumeirah said last October it was expecting to operate 60 properties either in operation or under development by 2012 as it looks to move away from its home market in the United Arab Emirates and rival other global international hotel operators.
The luxury hotelier, owned by Dubai's ruler, said it was still "committed" to its global expansion programme despite the global financial downturn.
The firm, famous for managing the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai, was interested in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and the state of Goa for hotel and resort projects, Lawless said.
"With the progressive economic development in India ... there has been a clear increase in demand for luxury hotels for business as well as leisure," Lawless said.
The travel and tourism sector is expected to contribute 6 percent, some $67.3 billion, to India's gross domestic product in 2009, according to a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
Globally, travel and tourism GDP is expected to contract by 3.6 percent in 2009 and remain weak in 2010 with marginal growth of less than 0.3 percent, data released by WTTC showed.
Jumeirah, which operates 11 hotels including the Carlton Tower in London and Essex House in New York, delayed plans to open its first hotel in China in January after the financial crisis hit the Asian nation, slowing down travel activity in the country.[ID:nHKG19258] Jumeirah missed its original target to open the planned 338-room Jumeirah Han Tang Xintiandi Hotel in downtown Shanghai in late 2008, re-scheduling the launch of the hotel to later this year. (Editing by John Irish and Sam Cage)