Hoteliers build to lure free-spending Asians abroad

Operators such as InterContinental Hotels Group and Hilton Hotels Corp are growing fast in an Asian market worth $115 billion a year, spurred on by a regional travel craze.

But they also hope to lodge their brands in local minds. That's because, despite a reputation for cramming into cheap package tours, Chinese tourists spend an average $3,786 on trips to the United States, and $5,253 in Europe.

The number of Chinese travelling to the United States has jumped 44 percent in four years to 320,000 last year, and Indian visitors increased nearly 60 percent to 406,000, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association.

InterContinental's acting Asia head, Anthony South, said the chance to capture the outbound market was a motive in a deal to buy a controlling stake in the hotel management unit of Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) last year.

ANA later sold its 13 hotels, jointly branded with InterContinental, to U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley.

"Through good times and bad, the Japanese go to all corners of the globe and are very well-heeled," South said.

"The same applies to China, where the outbound market is growing off a small base very rapidly. If they identify with our brand at home, it's good for our business."

InterContinental, which like most hotel firms has eschewed ownership to only operate hotels, aims to add 130 new properties to its 190 in Asia over three years. And at its Holiday Inns outside China, the firm is starting to stock hard pillows popular with Chinese, installing water boilers for instant noodles and laying out packets of Chinese tea next to the coffee.

Asia's hotel market is far from a sure bet, with the 1997 economic crisis, and an outbreak of the SARS respiratory disease in 2003 each causing a 20 percent drop in visitor arrivals. But the travel industry has a knack for bouncing back quickly.