Dusit International is diversifying into franchise programmes in response to investor demand and to preserve growth internationally.
Mr Baric hopes to preserve Dusit's strong momentum.
The group aims to open six franchise hotels in 2018: one each in Vietnam, Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates, and three in China.
Ante Baric, director of development, said Dusit and its partners are developing 62 properties globally with a total of 13,424 rooms. Of the projects, 56 hotels will be operated under management agreements and six will be run under franchise contracts.
The first six franchise hotels scheduled to open in 2018 are Dusit Princess Phu Quoc, Vietnam; DusitD2 Residences Abu Dhabi; DusitD2 Tianjin, China; Dusit Thani Jiangsu, China; Dusit Thani Guangdong, China; and Dusit Princess Dhaka in Bangladesh.
Dusit hopes to penetrate new markets, either via management or franchising deals, in Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
Mr Baric said Dusit recently launched its new franchise programme as part of a strategy under the supervision of group chief executive Suphajee Suthumpun. The strategy emphasises diversification and international expansion.
"Dusit has been growing rapidly over the past few years," he said. "But to preserve this momentum, we have to continue thinking about how to maximise the value we bring to our hotel owners. Focusing on value creation is the pathway to successful growth. Additionally, we must think about the needs of today's hotel owners."
Mr Baric said owning a hotel nowadays requires a number of elements to be optimised in order to stand out from the competition. He said the company has witnessed an increased number of hotel owners demonstrating a business acumen not seen in the past. Their ability to supervise their hotel operations, including through their general managers, has grown significantly in recent years.
"These changes make Dusit one of the few regional hotel chains that provide both management and franchise models to hotel developers, applicable for all of our brands," he said. "The franchise system is often misinterpreted as a model under which hotel owners have to do all of the work on their own. In reality, hotels are managed by experienced managers, and franchisees make sure such quality personnel are present both in managed and franchised properties."
Mr Baric said that under a management model, the company supervises a hotel's budget to ensure maximum profitability.
"Under a franchise model, we do not provide remote supervision of budgets and a hotel's owner may choose to do this supervision on its own," he said. "This is the fundamental difference between the models."
Yet both models enable hotels to be branded and get equal benefits from the master company's systems as well as centralised services, training, audits and all other elements that are integral to brand experience.
Dusit expects strong growth of the franchise model, particularly within Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.
Mr Baric said hotel franchising has long been popular in the West. The North American market is predominantly franchise-based, at roughly 90%. Asia's rate of 13% is expected to pick up rapidly.
For Dusit, management will remain strong but franchises will continue to be a supplement for the management model. For the next year or two, Dusit expects most of its growth to remain under management agreements.
Dusit aims to increase its hotel and resort count from 28 by adding 62 new properties over the next 3-5 years.