View of the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai. WANG GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY
China is on track to overtake the United States and become the world's largest hospitality and tourism market within seven to 10 years, said Accor Chairman and CEO Sebastien Bazin at a recent news conference held at the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
At the event, the French hospitality group signed a raft of new luxury and upscale hotel project deals across key Chinese markets and laid out an ambitious growth roadmap to double its domestic portfolio to 1,600 properties over the next five to six years, underscoring its long-term commitment to one of the world's most resilient travel markets.
"The main reason, no doubt, is that China will be the largest hospitality market in the world. China will be bigger than America in seven to 10 years as both a host country and a source country, which means we can grow in tier-one, tier-two and tier-three cities," Bazin said.
Accor considers China one of the few core strategic markets capable of driving significant growth and serving as a key engine for global expansion.
