Starwood opens its 1000th hotel

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has opened its 1000th hotel and resort in China, on the shores of Qiandao Lake or ‘the Lake of Thousand Islands’ as it is widely known.

The Sheraton Qiandao Lake Resort, which has 250 rooms, opened its doors earlier this week in the Chun’an County of Hangzhou and is located 140km from downtown Hangzhou.

Qiandao Lake is known as home to “the Atlantis of the East,” the 1,800 year-old remains of an ancient Chinese city, submerged beneath the water, which has made the area a popular tourist destination.

Starwood president and chief executive officer, Fits van Paasschen, said: There is no more fertile ground to grow than in China where we plan to double our footprint to 100 hotels by 2012.”

Starwood has announced that it plans to open an additional 80-100 hotels during 2010, at least 70% of which will be outside the United States, with the majority in the Asia Pacific.

Growth is also accelerating in India, where Starwood plans to increase its portfolio by a 60% by the end of 2010, with a further 26 hotels planned in the region.

Starwood president of global development, Simon Turner, added that there is an expectancy that more than 70% of the world’s growth over the next decade would come from emerging markets, which is consistent with Starwood’s development in markets like China and India.