Accor to open Five Hotels in China

Accor is poised for its largest ever expansion in China, with a record 5 hotels opening in just over one month, and 30 hotels under development scheduled to open in time for the 2008 Olympic Games.

April started with the launch of the Novotel Citygate Hong Kong in the new Tung Chung area close to the airport, AsiaWorld Expo and Disneyland.

During the rest of April and early May Accor will open two Sofitels in Nanjing plus one in Hangzhou, and its third Ibis hotel in China, Ibis Qingdao.

In addition, two new hotels were added to the development list this week, a 167 key Grand Mercure Resort in Ya Long Bay on Hainan Island, and a Mercure hotel in the Suzhou industrial area. It takes the number of hotels Accor has under development to 30. Accor currently has 34 hotels under operation in China.

According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association over 32 million Chinese travelled abroad in 2005, and it is conservatively estimated that by 2020 the figure will reach 100 million, making China by far the largest and most significant outbound travel market in the world.

Ibis Qingdao will be followed by new Ibis hotels scheduled to open later this year in Chongqing, Wuhan, Wuxi and Zhongshan. 

In February new Accor CEO Gilles Pélisson made China his first stop in Asia since taking over, and signed an agreement to develop three more Ibis hotels in Chengdu, plus three hotels in the nearby cities Yi Bing, Ya An and De Yang, all in Sichuan Province. This is part of a brand strategy that will have Accor up to 10 Ibis hotels per year from 2007.

The group will bring its flagship Sofitel brand to the Chinese capital with the opening of Sofitel Wanda Beijing in 2007, and it is slated to become a signature hotel for the Sofitel brand in China.

Other important hotel openings in the Beijing metropolitan area include Novotel Beijing West in Zhongguancun known for its high technology and computer software industries. The hotel will open in the second half of 2006.

Accor has a Novotel and Ibis complex planned as part of Beijing’s new Phoenix Plaza commercial and retail development on the edge of the city and close to the new Olympic Village. They are both scheduled to open early 2008 in time for the Olympics.

This September Accor will celebrate the opening of Novotel Baiyun Airport Guangzhou, building the group’s presence in China’s key transport and commercial centres.

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