100 Ibis hotels to be opened and committed by 2010
INTERVIEW-France’s Accor to expand China hotel network
SHANGHAI, March 19 (Reuters) – Accor , Europe’s biggest hotel group, expects to exceed its plan of opening more than 61 hotels in China before 2010, stepping up expansion in its main growth market, a senior executive said on Monday.
Driving that will be rapid growth in business travellers using budget hotels such as its Ibis brand, Accor Asia Pacific Managing Director Michael Issenberg told Reuters in an interview.
“We have a target of 100 Ibis hotels to be opened and committed by 2010,” Issenberg said.
“Tourism is definitely growing in China and we shouldn’t underestimate that, but most of the hotels we’re opening are targeted towards business travel, particularly the Ibis hotels.”
The French owner of the Sofitel and Novotel brands announced on Monday the opening of its 44th hotel in China.
It added 53 hotels in Asia Pacific last year and now operates 300 in the region, compared with 4,000 globally.
In two to three years, Accor expects China to account for 25 percent of its hotels in Asia Pacific, up from 15 percent now, Issenberg said.
Globally, Accor aims to open 200,000 new rooms by 2010, with two-thirds in emerging markets such as China, India, Turkey and Algeria.
The company last year opened its first hotel in India, a Novotel in Hyderabad, and has at least 15 committed projects in the country.
“It takes time to develop in India,” Issenberg said. “The hotels will start to open in the end of this year and growth will accelerate in ‘08 and ‘09.”
In China, analysts expect the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 and rising domestic wealth and tourism to drive strong growth in hotel demand.
“In those particular cities, in those particular years, these events will certainly drive a lot of demand, but you don’t build a hotel for a single event,” Issenberg said.
Among its global rivals, InterContinental Hotels Plc , the world’s largest hotelier, expects China to help lift the Asia-Pacific region to 15 percent of its pretax profit over the next three to five years, up from one-10th now.
Accor said two weeks ago that it expected to expand its Ibis budget hotel network to 40 to 50 hotels in China by 2008, going head to head with aggressive Chinese hoteliers such as Jin Jiang International Hotel (Group) Co. Ltd. , the country’s largest chain, and Home Inns & Hotel Management Inc. .
China attracted 124 million visitors and earned $33.5 billion from tourism last year, according to official data.