GIANT French hotel owner and operator Accor Asia Pacific Corp will be ready to take a major share of the burgeoning tourism industries of China and other Asian countries, thanks to a cash injection of $470 million. Accor, which plans a secondary listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange early next year, is also talking to several financial institutions about a long-term plan to list a separate China fund. The fund is expected to develop a three-star chain of 20 to 30 hotels in China's secondary industrial cities. China and North Asia managing director Roy Olsson said the chain, which had been on the drawing board for two months, would be aimed at the growing domestic market in China. ''The chain will be part of two-pronged attack on the China market, where we will also continue to develop our four-and five-star brands in the key gateway cities,'' Mr Olsson said. Accor is raising capital in Australia through an issue of 163 million shares on the Australian Stock Exchange next month in a bid to strengthen market presence and develop tourism opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. According to the share prospectus released last week, Accor has identified significant shortages of budget through to mid-scale hotel accommodation in China, Indonesia and Malaysia. The report says China is likely to see healthy increases in disposable incomes, resulting in increases of domestic tourism and business travellers, as political attitudes soften and international trade expands. ''The growth possibilities in China are highlighted by the fact there are 290,000 hotel rooms of varying classes, compared with 122,313 hotel rooms in Australia - a country with only 1.5 per cent of the Chinese population,'' the report says. Accor believes there is already an abundance of luxury hotels and resorts operated by the international five-star hotel groups in the Asian region - excessively so in some cases. ''A different situation exists for mid-scale and budget accommodation, where demand is growing rapidly and supply is mainly limited to independent hotels, franchised operations and small domestic chains,'' the report says. Accor is a comprehensive tourism group with six divisions world-wide. It made its first foray into Asia through operations based in Thailand in the 1960s. Specialising in value-for-money hotel accommodation, it has an existing network of 97 hotels - or 17,762 rooms - under ownership or management spread across 14 Asian countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, India and Australia. This includes 34 hotels and 7,921 rooms committed, or under negotiation and construction. Accor Asia Pacific, which underwent a major restructure last year - enabling it to list on the Australian Stock Exchange - plans to continue its growth in the region through establishing a visible presence in gateway cities. It plans to then expand its product network in the countries in which it operates. A key market will be China, where Accor runs hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, and has a further two hotels - or 600 rooms - under construction. Operations are to be co-ordinated from the Hong Kong regional office. As part of the restructuring of the tourism industry, the Chinese Government hopes to improve services to foreign visitors by relaxing centralised control of state-owned tour operators, creating new regional airlines and constructing five new airports. In China, and other emerging markets, Accor's aim will be to develop dense domestic networks of managed hotels, thus providing low priced accommodation in all feasible locations across the country that cater to increased domestic travel. According to the report, local developers and investors in Asia are looking for partnerships with parties who are able to bring technical and operational expertise to tourism projects. Accor, which derives most of its income from management fees, prefers to take an equity position in a property it manages only if it secures a strategic location or assists in gaining entry into a new market. It sees some opportunities to take minority interests in distressed hotel properties in Australia and New Zealand to acquire management rights.
