[photopress:accorcasestudy.jpg,full,alignright]Accor is Europe’s biggest hotel group. It is is a large French multinational corporation, which runs chains of hotels and restaurants. Some of these you will have heard of, others not.
Start as it were at the top and work down: Sofitel, Novotel, the Mercure Network including Dorint, Libertel, Orbis Hotels, Parthenon Apartments and All Seasons, Ibis and many other, lower profile chains located in the USA and in Canada including Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns.
All Seasons hotels are mainly in Australia, Dorint and Orbis in Central Europe, and Parthenon Apartments in Brazil. Accor also runs cooking schools, travel companies and casinos. On the seventh day it rests.
Now Accor expects to exceed its plan of opening more than 61 hotels in China before 2010, stepping up expansion in what is its main growth market.
Accor Asia Pacific managing director Michael Issenberg said driving that will be rapid growth in business travelers using budget hotels such as its Ibis brand. He said, ‘We have a target of 100 Ibis hotels to be opened and committed by 2010. 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.’
He said in two to three years, Accor expects China to account for 25% of its hotels in Asia Pacific, up from 15% now. In expanding its Ibis budget hotel network it is going head to head with aggressive Chinese hoteliers such as Jin Jiang, the country’s largest chain, and Home Inns. The winner in this will be the traveler.
Source: The Edge