Located in Beijing's Wangfujing commercial and shopping district, the new four-star hotel is set to become the leading mid-scale, full-service hotel for business and leisure travellers to the Chinese capital.

Paul Kirwin, president of Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific, said:"We are very pleased to announce the opening of our flagship Park Plaza for China in the fast-growing, cosmopolitan metropolis of Beijing."

He revealed that the company plans to open an additional three hotels in key Chinese gateway cities over the next two years, including a five-star luxury hotel- Regent International Hotel- in Beijing later this year.

Two months ago, Carlson opened a Regent Hotel at a premier location in Shanghai.

Kirwin said the company, besides promoting the Park Plaza brand, would seek to develop its business in two ways.

"Firstly, we will put our emphasis on the tier-2 cities in China where we will aggressively develop our low-end brand. We can develop a formula to build value hotels of the same scale, such as Park Inn hotels. In this way we can expand at a higher speed with smaller investment.

"Secondly, we will further develop our top brands, such as Regent and Radisson. This involves our strategy in large Chinese cities having at least one frontline hotel in each metropolis,"

He said that the hotel group would invest up to US$1 billion to launch a highly efficient global hotel management system.

"We are preparing for the huge business opportunities brought by 2008 Olympics in Beijing and 2010 Shanghai Expo," he said.

Carlson Hotels has eight hotels on the Chinese mainland across its brands of Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels& Resorts and Park Plaza Hotels& Resorts.

Globally, the company has 920 hotel and resort operations in 69 countries.

Statistics from the International Hotel and Restaurant Association indicate China is expected to have 9 million hotel guest rooms by 2020, becoming the world's largest market for hotels.

(Source: China Daily)