IHG To Launch China Hotel Brand In Next Six Months | MarketWatch

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC Wednesday said it will launch a new upscale hotel chain in China in the next six months and eventually export the brand across the booming economies of Asia Pacific as it strives to become the operator of choice for increasingly wealthy Chinese travellers at home and abroad.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Jan Smits, chief executive of the Asia, Middle East & Africa operations, also said the outlook for the hotel industry in his region continues to show positive growth indicators, even as economists and investors are concerned that macro-economic weakness in key Western markets, including the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, will spill over into emerging countries of the East.

The U.K.-based company is the world's largest hotelier by number of rooms, with around 4,500 hotels and a further 1,200 in the pipeline. It plans to more than double the size of its operations in China, India and the Middle East in the next few years as traveller numbers are boosted by rising incomes and spending power, as well as increased life expectancy, low-cost airlines and the ease of Internet bookings.