Room boom

GUANGZHOU: The 2010 Asian Games will boost Guangzhou's already booming hospitality market in the next few years, experts said during a recent Asian Hotel Forum.

The yearly hospitality industry forum drew more than 500 representatives from 100 hotels this year.

Since the first joint-venture hotel appeared in 1979, 41 international hotel groups and 67 international hotel brands have opened in China.

Guangzhou will open at least 30 high-class hotels in the next three to five years to cope with the growing lodging market. The new hotels will be able to provide 8,000 new rooms, experts say.

They predict that 24 new five-star hotels will be opened before the Asian Games and about 20 billion yuan will be invested in the projects.

"More real estate developers are entering the hospitality industry," says Chen Bin, the president of the New Hope Group real estate and animal feed conglomerate. Some other real estate groups entering the hospitality industry include Country Garden, Evergrande Real Estate Group, R&F, and Agile.

Take Country Garden Holdings Company for example. The company's hotel facilities earned more than 200 million yuan last year, and have become one of the most important businesses of the company.

Experts say the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games will be a good opportunity for Guangzhou's efforts to ramp up its lodging industry. Virtually all five-star hotels in Beijing are already reserved for the Olympics and the price of rooms has skyrocketed to six to eight times the normal rates.

Hotel analysts predict that a five-star suite will cost up to US$800 per night during the Games and three-star suites will cost US$350 per night.

"The Olympic games are a perfect chance for China to develop its hospitality industry and upgrade hotel facilities," Dai Yi, vice-president of China region of the Hyatt International Group, says.

Even though some experts are worried that Beijing's hotel industry will dip after the Olympic Games, Guangzhou doesn't fret."Guangzhou's tourism industry continues to rise," says Li Wenyao, director of the Guangzhou Tourism Administration. "The yearly increasing rate of visitors is more than 10 percent."

The third China Hotel Starlight Award was held at the same time with the forum. Totally 124 hotels in the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan won the awards.

The awards have improved winners' popularity in the market and played a motivated role in boosting the whole industry's development.

(China Daily 04/07/2008 page10)