Hong Kong, October 14, 2004 — Deloitte has announced the launch of the China edition of the HotelBenchmark Survey, in response to the country’s rapidly growing hotel industry. Leading the field in monitoring hotel performance in Asia Pacific, the China Survey is another first for Deloitte's HotelBenchmark team and is being showcased this week at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) in Hong Kong.

This is the first time that such comprehensive monthly rate and occupancy performance data on the Chinese hotel market has ever been available. The new survey tracks 29 markets across the country — providing analysis by region, province, city, district and size of hotel.

For the first 8 months of 2004 hotel performance in China has continued to grow with revenue per available room (revPAR) up 67% over last year. This is hardly surprising given the weak comparables for 2003 due to SARS. However, more noteworthy is that revPAR is up 20% against the 2000 comparable which is particularly encouraging as most markets worldwide are still trading well below 2000 levels. Given the buoyant performance of the market, it is hardly surprising that China is featuring high on the priority list of a number of hotel chains.

Alex Kyriakidis, Managing Partner of The Deloitte Global Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure industry team said: "China will provide the global tourism industry with around 40 million mid to upscale travellers within the next three years and will inevitably rise to the top 3 countries in tourism receipt within that period. The hospitality industry in China, with huge potential for domestic tourism, is a fundamental cornerstone in delivering the tourism potential."

Terry Wang, partner in charge of the Deloitte Travel, Hospitality & Leisure team in China further added: "Endless development opportunities exist in China as only 10% of the hotel stock is branded. To meet the needs of China's growing domestic market significant opportunities exist in the mid-market sector, which to date is relatively under-developed. Accor and InterContinenatl Hotel Group are two companies seeking to position themselves as the market leaders in this new segment."

China Hotel Performance on Selected Markets Year-to-August 2004

Source:  HotelBenchmark Survey by Deloitte

A more detailed review of China’s hotel performance will feature in the HotelBenchmark’s fortnightly newsletter "In the Know," out on 20 October.

Commenting on the launch of the survey, Julia Felton, Executive Director of HotelBenchmark at Deloitte said: "We are very excited to be first to launch a monthly country survey on China. With the recent ease of travel restrictions, increased mobility of the growing middle class and the largest population in the world it seems continued growth in future travel inbound and outbound is inevitable."

Julia Felton added: "It is therefore not surprising that global hotel companies are racing to increase their presence in China. We are delighted to be able to provide operators with hotel performance data to provide greater transparency in the market."

The HotelBenchmark Survey is the leading provider of hotel performance data across Asia Pacific currently tracking 36 cities and 92 markets in the region. China is the 14th monthly performance survey to be launched under the HotelBenchmark banner.

About Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is an organization of member firms devoted to excellence in providing professional services and advice, focused on client service through a global strategy executed locally in nearly 150 countries. With access to the deep intellectual capital of 120,000 people worldwide, our member firms, including their affiliates, deliver services in four professional areas: audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services. Our member firms serve more than one-half of the world's largest companies, as well as large national enterprises, public institutions, locally important clients, and successful, fast-growing global growth companies.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is a Swiss Verein (association), and, as such, neither Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu nor any of its member firms has any liability for each other’s acts or omissions. Each of the member firms is a separate and independent legal entity operating under the names "Deloitte," "Deloitte & Touche," "Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu" or other related names. The services described herein are provided by the member firms and not by the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Verein. For regulatory and other reasons certain member firms do not provide services in all four professional areas listed above.