Taipei: Marriott International Inc., the largest US lodging chain, and other groups including Le Meridien and W Hotels, plan to open their first hotels in Taiwan as they compete to cater for rising numbers of Chinese tourists.
Marriott is working with Taiwanese businessman B. V. Riu, owner of Taipei-based luxury hotel Sherwood, on a NT$6.2 billion (Dh716 million), 352-room lodging franchise agreement, Victor Chou, president of Sherwood, said. Le Meridien and W Hotels, both owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., also plan to open premises in the city this year.
Relaxed rules
Visitors from China may surpass those from Japan to become Taiwan's number one source of arrivals this year, as relaxed rules spur travel to an island that has been off limits to mainland Chinese for 60 years.
International hotel chains and local developers in Taiwan plan to invest NT$83 billion building 45 hotels and resorts, adding 10,865 rooms, in the next three years, the island's tourism bureau said on its website.
"There is plenty of room for Chinese tourism to grow," Ma Tieying, a Singapore-based economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. said by phone. "Direct flights between China and Taiwan will also boost cross-strait business traffic, and these businessmen and corporate clients will also trigger demand for hotel rooms."
China overtook France last year as the world's fourth-largest source of travel expenditure, according to the United Nation's World Tourism Organisation.
Germany was the biggest, followed by the US and the UK. About 54 million Chinese may travel abroad this year, the China National Tourism Administration forecast.
Increased spending
Travellers from mainland China — excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau — increased their spending 21 per cent to $43.7 billion (Dh160.5 billion) last year as worldwide tourism expenditure fell 9.6 per cent to $852 billion, the UN agency said.
"We are going to build a comprehensive complex for leisure, convention and exhibitions," Chou said in an interview from Taipei this week. "We want to be there for the cross-strait travel boom."
The developer will break ground on the hotel on September 9, Chou said.
Le Meridien is working with Shin Kong Financial Holding Co.'s life insurance arm on its Taipei property, said Christina Yeh, section chief at the Taiwan tourism bureau's hotel division.
The 160-room hotel, located near the Taipei 101, the world's second-tallest building, is scheduled to start operating on November 1, according to Starwood's website.
W Hotels is working with Uni-President Group, which owns the operator of 7-Eleven and Starbucks in Taiwan. The hotel will have 403 rooms and is expected to open in December, Yeh said.
Starwood didn't immediately reply to emails seeking comments.
