Hilton China Hotels to Rise Fourfold by 2014

Hilton Hotel

　    Hilton Worldwide said it will have 100 hotels in China by 2014, four times the number of properties it manages in the country now.

　　China will become Hilton’s biggest market after the U.S. by the time, Andrew Flack, vice president of global brand and marketing, told reporters in Shanghai today. The company now runs 25 hotels in the country.

　　“This exceptional growth is really a once in a generation opportunity we are seeing in China,” Flack said, citing the increasing number of Chinese travelers. “What that delivers for us is the opportunities to build hotels.”

　　Hilton, which also operates under brands including Waldorf Astoria and Doubletree in China, is expanding as the number of domestic tourists climbed 11 percent in 2010 and will continue to increase as incomes and economic growth spur travel, according to Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. China is the world’s third-largest tourism destination, according to the United Nations Tourism Organization.

　　Hilton is joining an expansion spree by other international hotel groups in China. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (HOT) expects China to be its largest growth market in the next three to four years, Chief Executive Officer Frits van Paasschen said in an interview in June. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG), owner of the Holiday Inn brand, said in May that one in four of the hotel rooms that it opens over the next five years will be in China.