Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, the world's largest hotel owner, wants to double its committed projects to 10 in Shanghai in the next decade.
Miguel Ko, president of the New York-listed hotelier's Asia-Pacific operations, said China's growing affluence and increasing number of inbound and outbound travellers, as well as Shanghai's emerging financial and commercial prominence, presented the group with long-term growth potential in the middle to high-end hospitality segment.
The group believes the Shanghai market is so prosperous that it can absorb 10 Starwood hotels in addition to hundreds of state-owned and foreign hotels.
'If you believe in China, you have to believe in Shanghai,' Mr Ko said yesterday. 'It is like if you believe in the United States, you have to believe in New York.'
With the ambition of bringing in its US experience of operating 15 hotels in New York, Starwood in Shanghai operates a portfolio of top-end hotels, including a Westin, a St Regis and a Sheraton.
It plans to open a Four Points by Sheraton next year and another Sheraton in 2007.
The group was also finalising a contract to manage a W Hotel, a Sun Hung Kai Properties project in Shanghai's Liujiazui financial district, Pudong, Mr Ko said.