Accor plans to open 18 hotels in China this year and double its footprint on the mainland within two years, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The new hotels are aimed at the growing - and increasingly competitive - up-scale travel market.

The group is well positioned for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, said Robert Murray, Accor’s senior vice-president for China, who was a senior executive for the company in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games.

There are currently 44 hotels under the Accor name on the mainland, and the group hopes to add 80 more by 2008.

The 18 hotels to open this year will be “a mixture of new hotels and takeovers of existing hotels”, Murray said.
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