Starwood opens its 1,000th hotel

WHITE PLAINS, New York - Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc opened its 1,000th hotel in the world on Wednesday along East China's Qiandao Lake, also known as the Lake of a Thousand Isles.

The selection of the milestone hotel, Sheraton Qiandao Lake Resort, represents Starwood's ambitious expansion plan in the Chinese market. While Starwood currently has 54 hotels up and operating in China, it has another 70 hotels under development or construction in the country, according to a company executive.

"We will have 100 hotels in China by the end of 2012 and double our footprint in China from the end of 2009 to the end of 2012," Matthew Avril, president of the hotel group for Starwood Hotels and Resorts, told China Daily in an exclusively interview on Tuesday in the Starwood headquarters in White Plains, outside New York City.