Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has announced that the company has reached an important milestone in its history, opening its 1,000th hotel and resort. The Sheraton Qiandao Lake Resort is located on the shores of China's famed Qiandao Lake, also known as the Lake of Thousand Islands.
"We are delighted to welcome our 1,000th hotel, and the fact that it is a Sheraton in China seems pre-destined," said Frits van Paasschen, president and CEO of Starwood. "This hotel is emblematic of both our history and our bright future.
"As Starwood's largest and most global brand, Sheraton provided us early footholds in emerging markets, including China in the early 1980s when we were the first international hotel there. Today, Starwood is the world's most global hotel company - with plans to open 300 hotels in the next three to four years - and for the first time we have more hotels outside the US than within. And there is no more fertile ground to grow than in China where we plan to double our footprint to 100 hotels by 2012."
Beyond its 1,000th hotel, Starwood expects to open 80 to 100 additional hotels in 2010 - 70 per cent of which will be outside the US, with the majority in Asia Pacific. In China, Starwood is slated to open more than 20 hotels this year. Growth is also accelerating in India where Starwood already has 26 hotels and plans to increase its portfolio by 60 per cent by the end of 2012.
"Some expect that more than 70 per cent of the world's growth over the next decade will come from emerging - or what we like to call 'fast-growing' - markets, which is consistent with Starwood's global pipeline of new hotels and skew towards development in markets like China and India," said Simon Turner, president of Global Development for Starwood. "By working with the right partners in the right places on the right properties, we are well poised to continue to lead the charge in growth throughout these critical markets."
Located in Chun'an County of Hangzhou, the Sheraton Qiandao Lake is 140 kilometres from downtown Hangzhou. The 250-room resort is located on the scenic shore of Qiandao Lake, a popular tourist destination for mountain climbing, cycling and other outdoor activities. The pure waters of the lake flow directly from the Yellow Mountain range, and the region is China's largest state forest park, spanning almost 1,000 square kilometres.
www.starwoodhotels.com