New | Marriott International plans aggressive expansion plan in China
Hotel group eager to court Chinese business travellers on domestic trips
Global hotel chain Marriott International has unveiled an aggressive expansion plan in China that includes entering more than 20 second and third-tier cities in four years.
Marriott joins other global hotel groups expanding in China. InterContinental Hotels Group recently said it would double its hotels over the next five years while Carlson Rezidor Hotel said it planned to triple its hotels to 50 by 2019.
"Not just international travellers, we want to appeal to Chinese business travellers that travel between Chinese cities, " said Craig Smith, the president and managing director of Marriott Asia-Pacific. "We find there is increasingly more leisure travelling within China by the Chinese."
Marriott already has hotels in 26 Chinese cities. "I want to make that 50-plus cities in three to four years," Smith said.
New locations will include cities such as Yiwu in Zhejiang province, famous as the world's largest supplier of trinkets, and Xinzhou in Shanxi province, home to the well-known Wutaishan resort.
Despite Beijing's anti-corruption drive that has dented luxury consumption and an economic slowdown, sales at Marriott have risen 5 per cent in China this year. In Shanghai, sales are up 12 per cent.
Compared with major cities, Smith said that in smaller cities a larger percentage of the revenue is derived from food and beverages rather than rooms. In some cities, food and beverages can account for up to 60 per cent of revenue because of the shortage of function rooms for weddings or meetings.
