Golden Tulip to franchise

London-based consortium Golden Tulip Worldwide is to begin franchising hotels in a bid to strengthen its brand identity.

The move will enable the organisation to compete head-on with established franchise-based groups such as Holiday Inn Worldwide and Choice Hotels International.

"Our aim is to move to a harder brand. The brand proposition has to be clear and the next step on from a consortium is franchising," said Paul Verhaak, vice president sales and marketing for Golden Tulip Worldwide.

The first property to be franchised will be the 151-bedroom Jarvis International Hotel Gatwick . Currently 50 Jarvis Hotels are signed up with the consortium.

Franchisees will, in return for an increased fee, be offered help in areas such as design, signage, personnel and training.

"Some of our hotel members wanted us to offer more than a consortium can supply, but they don't want to belong to a mega-corporation," said Mr Verhaak.

Much of the operating know-how for the franchisees will be supplied through Golden Tulip International, a chain of 32 managed and owned hotels based in the Netherlands. This group has separate ownership, with Dutch airline KLM as a major shareholder.

The consortium plans to grow from its current 300-strong membership, including 53 UK hotels, to 800 by the year 2000. The target for the proportion of franchisees within this number is not fixed.

The focus for future growth of the consortium is North Africa and Germany.