[photopress:hotelboom.jpg,full,alignright]Jones Lang LaSalle forecasts China’s luxury hotel business is likely to grow strongly over the next five years, driven by booming business travel. Andreas Flaig, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, said government efforts to cool speculation and encourage construction of more affordable housing should not impact investment in the fast-growing sector. He said, ‘Most of what these regulations are for is, in fact, to better control and maybe cool the residential market, less so the commercial market. However, the government’s investment curbs may affect investors’ procedures for purchasing hotel assets.’
The number of four-star and five-star hotel rooms in Shanghai is likely to grow by some 8,000 rooms until 2008, and more investment should find its way to the sector leading up to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Jones Lang LaSalle view is that Beijing’s hotel market is likely to grow strongly ahead of the 2008 Olympics but lags the Shanghai market by four to five years, the firm said. Shanghai was home to 351 star-rated hotels at the end of last year.
According to U.S.-based industry tracker Lodging Econometrics China is now Asia’s hottest spot for hotel development, accounting for nearly half of all new projects in the region. Of the 386 hotels being actively pursued throughout Asia, 188 are in China, and 134 of those are rated four or five-star.
Hilton Hotels said last month it plans to double the number of its hotels under its management in China in the next several years. InterContinental Hotels, the world’s largest hotelier, early this year signed a deal to manage six hotels in Southwest China to boost its share in the market.
Source: TDC Trade
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