Hilton targets 100-hotel network in China by 2014

Beijing: Hilton Worldwide said it will have 100 hotels in China by 2014, four times the number of properties it manages in the country now.

China will become Hilton's biggest market after the US by the time, Andrew Flack, vice-president of global brand and marketing, told reporters in Shanghai Thursday. The company now runs 25 hotels in the country.

"This exceptional growth is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity we are seeing in China," Flack said, citing the increasing number of Chinese travelers. "What that delivers for us is the opportunities to build hotels."

Hilton, which also operates under brands including Waldorf Astoria and Doubletree in China, is expanding as the number of domestic tourists climbed 11 per cent in 2010 and will continue to increase as incomes and economic growth spur travel, according to Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group.

Competitive growth

Hilton is joining an expansion spree by other international hotel groups in China. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide expects China to be its largest growth market in the next three to four years, Chief executive officer Frits van Paasschen said in an interview in June.

InterContinental Hotels Group, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, said in May that one in four of the hotel rooms that it opens over the next five years will be in China.

The hotel operator will build properties under different brands in China and expand into smaller, less affluent cities, said Philippe Garnier, Hilton's vice-president of sales and regional marketing in the Asia-Pacific region. "We really want to cover the regions that most Chinese travellers want to travel," Garnier said.