Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced efforts to widely expand its property portfolio in South Asia. Over the last year, the brand opened nine hotels and has plans for 16 new hotels in development. Currently, it operates 54 hotels in South Asia, with 34 under development. New openings in 2015 were primarily limited to India, with others expected to arrive in the Maldives, Bangladesh and India shortly.

“Our growth continues to be fueled by strong domestic demand for quality and branded accommodations in Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets. India is already Starwood’s fourth-largest market in terms of number of hotels and will soon be its third after the U.S. and China. The momentum of 2015 will continue in 2016 with another eight to 10 hotel openings in the region,” said Dilip Puri, managing director, India, and regional vice president, South Asia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Starwood attributes this growth to the driving demand for luxury goods and services in the region, which allowed for substantial expansion of its Luxury Collection, Four Points and Aloft brands, as well as Starwood resorts properties. It has also seen success in converting independent hotels in the region to the Starwood brand.