Paris, Accor and the Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang International Management Corporation have signed an agreement to establish a hotel sales and distribution network in China, via a joint venture. Three sales and distribution centres will be opened in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing to sell rooms at the Jin Jiang group's 53 hotels and Accor's 15 hotels accross the country..

The centres will target major national and provincial accounts. Accor reservation system, TARS On Line, will be used and an Internet reservation site will also be established in Chinese.

At the same time, Accor is to take over management of the Jin Jiang Oriental Tower hotel, owned by the East Jin Jiang Corporation group, in Shanghai's Pudong district. The 549-room hotel will operate under the Sofitel name as from the second quarter of 2002.

This agreement will enable both companies to strengthen their presence in China. The Jin Jiang Chairman, Shen Maoxing, commented, " Jin Jiang's strength is its expertise of China and the network of strong commercial relationships that it has developed over many years with large domestic corporate clients. There will be excellent synergy between this and Accor's business tools, and hotel sales and distribution network."

Jochen Dobel, the Vice-Chairman of Accor Asia Pacific, stated, "this sales and distribution initiative follows our recent partnership with the Beijing Tourism Group. Both agreements clearly demonstrate our will to develop in China with major national partners."

Jin Jiang Holdings Co Ltd is one of the major actors in the hotel and tourism industry in China. Hotels, tourism, car hire, real estate, entertainment, trading, finance, etc. are its main activities.

Jin Jiang International Management Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Jin Jiang Holdings Co Ltd, owns a chain of 53 hotels (14,127 rooms) in 14 regions of China. Jin Jiang is the best-known brand name in the Chinese hotel industry.

With 145,000 associates in 140 countries, Accor is the European leader and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and corporate services, with two major international activities:

• hotels: 3,700 hotels (410,000 rooms) in 90 countries, casinos, travel agencies, and restaurants;
• services to corporate clients and public institutions: each day, 12 million people in 31 countries use a broad range of services (food vouchers, people care and services, incentive, loyalty programs, events) engineered and managed by Accor.