China and India are the fastest growing economies in the world and are expected to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Many international companies have had large operating and development teams in the region for sometime. Uniformly all companies are accelerating their activity. Those with mid-market and economy brands see this as the opportune time to begin their brand distribution programs as emphasis mounts for servicing the growing and newly prosperous middle class population in both countries, many of whom are accessing travel for the first time.

InterContinental already has a roster of both upscale and mid-market brands under development and has the largest Pipeline at 73 hotels / 23,884 rooms. Starwood, whose portfolio of brands is mostly upscale and luxury follows with 60 hotels / 20,937 rooms. Marriott International is next with 40 hotels / 13,015 rooms.

Hilton, after its merger with Hilton International, is concentrating on Hilton Garden Inns, Doubletree, and Hampton by Hilton, and their luxury brands Conrad and Waldorf Astoria. Hilton has already established two significant joint ventures with development and financing specialists, that should result in a rapid expansion for their brands in both China and India. Hyatt, Four Seasons and Kempinski are single branded companies that have solid Pipelines, have been active for years, and have already developed some of the most significant iconic properties in the region.

Shangri-La from Hong Kong and Taj Hotels from Mumbai are the significant international companies based in Asia. The luxury Shangri-La brand and their 4 star Traders brand have 32 hotels / 13,104 rooms in the Pipeline. Taj has 36 hotels / 4,581 rooms in the Pipeline, 7 of which are for Ginger Hotels, their new economy brand.

For economy brands, Jin Jiang, with Starwood Capital holding a significant ownership stake, plans to have 200 new hotels around China by 2011 and aspires to open a total of 1,000 new hotels in the years ahead. ACCOR is hoping for 50 Hotel Ibis by 2011. Choice has just announced a joint venture where they hope to quickly deliver 12,000 new rooms spread across four of their mid-market brands.

For 4 and 5 star brands Starwood hopes to add another 40 hotels in China by 2010, many of them their new aloft brand. Raffles, with new investors Prince Al Waleed bin Talal and Colony Capital, hopes to accelerate their growth in the region. So too with InterContinental, who just reflagged 13 ANA hotels with its flagship brand.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 12:55 am and is filed under Hotel, Travel. Tags: Asia Asian Astoria China Colony Capital development Doubletree Four Seasons Garden Inn Ginger Hotels Hampton Hilton Hilton Garden Inn Hilton International Hong Kong Hotel Ibis Hotels Hyatt India InterContinental Kempinski Marriott Marriott International Mumbai New Hotel Raffles Starwood Starwood Capital Taj Hotels Travel . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.