WITH a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan (US$160 million), China's Jin Mao Group will open its second luxury resort hotel in Sanya, Hainan Province, early next year, following the recent success of Jin Mao Hilton Sanya Hotel.

The Jin Mao Ritz-Carlton Sanya, situated in the Yalong Bay National Holiday Resort Zone, covers 75,000 square meters and boasts 450 luxury suites including 33 villas.

Jin Mao Group officials said the hotel was set up on the last piece of coastal land inside the resort zone, just adjacent to the group's first successful investment in Sanya - the Hilton Sanya Hotel.

The group invited the Ritz-Carlton Group, a big name in luxury hotel management, to run the hotel because it hoped the cooperation would become a milestone project in the Chinese resort hotel industry.

Rainer J. Burkle, vice president and area general manager of the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, said his group and the Jin Mao Group carried the same principles of quality and luxury. "When guests choose a hotel, it is important for them to know its ownership," he said.

"The Sanya project is the primary step in China and the group will join in operating another eight luxury hotels throughout the country by 2010 due to booming tourism," he added.

Michael L. Goget, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Sanya, said that the hotel is "not competing with other hotel components (in Sanya). We are coming at a different level and bringing along a different brand. Our joining in will be a stimulus to the hotel industry and tourism market here."