Global Lodging Industry: China’s Hotel Market to Drive Growth

The global lodging industry has seen tremendous growth in 2006 backed by growth in four continents - Asia, South & Central America, Europe, and the Middle East reporting double-digit RevPar growth.

Although North America, traditionally a market that use to drive the global hotel industry slowed down in 2006, Western European countries specifically France, Austria and Germany and Asian countries like China and India came to the industry’s rescue with a major growth in the hotel segment.

The Asian countries specifically China and India are witnessing the fastest growth in the lodging industry supported by international business and leisure tourism. Three major factors are driving growth in the Western European and the Asian countries - a sound economic growth in these regions followed by increasing business activities and the advent of new tourist destinations.

China is likely to see the highest growth in the Asian region because of the fact that domestic tourism has seen unprecedented increase in the country with tourism expenditure rising on average at 14% annually. Further the Chinese government is likely to reduce state-ownership of hotel assets and thereby releasing quality lodging assets to be operated by foreign companies or joint ventures.

Also, there are significant growth opportunities for international brand as only around 15% of rooms in China are currently branded. As a result, major global lodging companies are expanding their operations in China to leverage the growth opportunities.

The report is a study on the global hotel industry with specific focus on the Chinese hotel industry. The report assesses the various business models that are adopted by the lodging companies. The size and growth of the hotel industry by geographic region has been studied in this report. The report analyzes the growth opportunities that are present in the Chinese hotel industry and also assesses the differentiating strategies adopted by leading lodging companies operating in China. It studies the functioning and strategies of five global lodging companies - InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Wyndham Worldwide, Marriott International, Hilton Hotels and Accor.