MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL Witness the soaring of China’s hotel industry

With more than 6,500 hotels in 127 countries and regions, Marriott International is the world’s largest hotel group. At present, it has more than 300 hotels in some 80 cities in China, covering 23 brands, which include luxury brands such as JW Marriott, St. Regis, Ritz-Carlton, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, high-end brands such as Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, Renaissance, and selected service brands such as aloft and Courtyard by Marriott.

The hotel industry is a pioneer in China’s reform and opening-up. In 1980, the Committee on Foreign Investment in China approved three Sino-foreign joint ventures: Beijing Air Catering Co Ltd, Jianguo Hotel Beijing, and The Great Wall Sheraton Hotel Beijing. Among the international hotel groups entering China: The Great Wall Sheraton entered in 1984, followed by Metro Park Lido Hotel, and Marriott International began its expansion in China by acquiring the New World.

Since Marriott opened its first hotel in China in 1989, the group has witnessed the drastic change from only 203 hotels in China by the end of the 1970s (according to the registration data of China National Tourism Administration) to more than 300,000 by 2017, including more than 20,000 four-star and five-star hotels (according to Ctrip).

The first modern Sino-foreign joint venture hotels in China have brought in not only the capital, but also the idea on the management of modern hotels. 

“Nowadays, hotels have shifted from the market for luxury consumption to the place where a majority of the middle-class would enjoy their holidays and engage in business activities,” said Franklin Mak, the group’s senior vice president in China.

“The hotels used to entertain mainly foreign customers, and now 60 percent of our customers are Chinese. We are also pushing ahead with localization. When I joined Marriott International in the United States in 1991, I was the only Chinese at the meeting. And now Marriott has more than 170 local general managers in China. These changes are really exciting. In the future, we will continue to promote localization, which means that the majority of the senior management will be Chinese.”