SET-listed hospitality company Minor International Plc is set to spend 40 billion baht to expand its hotel and food businesses from 2013-17.
Of the budget, 20-25 billion baht will be poured into opening new hotels and restaurants under existing brands, while another 15 billion baht will be used to create new business.
Vice-president Chaiwat Paithoon said Minor will have almost 2,500 food restaurants around the world by 2017, up from 1,381 now.
"We are looking to have new food brands to strengthen our business. We bought the Riverside food brand in China last year and it will be a new revenue generator for us in the coming year," he said.
Minor is looking for opportunities to buy hospitality-related businesses in Africa, India, Australia and the Middle East, where it already operates.
It expects its net profit will increase by 15-20% over the next five years. Last year, it posted a net profit of 3.4 billion baht, up 78% from 2011.
Meanwhile, the Erawan Group, another hospitality company, sees bright prospects for Thai tourism and expects to grow revenue by at least 15% this year to 4.79 billion baht before reaching 6.5 billion baht by 2015.
President Kamonwan Wipulakorn said the tourism situation has clearly improved thanks to political stability.
After a loss of 173 million baht in 2011, Erawan had a net profit of 106 million baht last year.
"The positive result came from successful implementation of our five-year investment plan, starting from 2011. A budget of 8.5 billion baht is being spent to diversify hotel business to cover all segments and major locations in the country," Ms Kamonwan said.
Erawan has focused on expanding in the mid-scale and economy hotel segments after seeing strong tourism growth in the region.
The group, which has 11 mid-scale and economy hotels in its portfolio, plans to open Holiday Inn and Mercure hotels in Pattaya next year.
Erawan will increase average room rates by about 5% for its five-star Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel and JW Marriott Bangkok and hotels under the ibis brand.
Room rates of mid-scale hotels under the Mercure label will go up by 8-10%, while those at the Renaissance Samui and Naka Island resorts will rise 25%.
Erawan reported a 14% rise of revenue to 4.36 billion baht last year, up from 3.82 billion baht in 2011.
Average occupancy rates last year were 72% for its luxury hotels (up from 67% in 2011), 82% for its mid-scale hotels (up from 78%) and 74% for its economy hotels (up from 68%).
Ms Kamonwan projects average occupancy for all hotels in the first quarter of this year will be around 85%.
Erawan's 16 hotels are managed by five international hotel chains.