TFCI's growth drivers: Hotels, real estate, MSME solar

The Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) is seeing strong demand for hospitality and real estate funding and plans to expand into new areas, such as micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) solar financing for the tourism sector, said Anoop Bali, managing director and chief executive officer of TCI, in an interview with Harsh Kumar in New Delhi.

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Bali spoke about key growth sectors, diversification plans, and the outlook for asset quality. Edited excerpts:

What kind of major demand are you currently seeing, especially in the hospitality and reconstruction sectors?

= We are supporting the hospitality sector, and the hotel industry is currently thriving. Many new hotels are coming up, so there’s strong demand for financing new and greenfield projects.

The total hotel inventory is expected to grow from around 200,000 to 300,000 rooms. The demand for hotel financing is no longer limited to metros — it’s now spreading to emerging cities and smaller destinations. At the same time, existing hotels also need major renovations, which are creating parallel demand for refurbishment funding.