Accor CEO: Chinese tourists look beyond APAC

Sebastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of AccorHotels, shared his ideas on China’s hospitality market and the upcoming travel technologies at the 2017 China Tourism Development Forum held in Suzhou, China on December 20.
Mr Bazin said of the hotel market in China: “China will be, or maybe it is already, the largest market in the world, surpassing the US. With every year passing, Chinese travelers will get more and more comfortable moving away from Asia Pacific. And that has a huge impact on the hospitality industry.”
He believed that “China and the US are the two largest hospitality markets in the world. Both have been through fast growth for the past 40 years”, and “what is happening in China today is the exact same thing that had happened in the US during 1970-1990, when major US chain companies dominated the US market for 20 years”.
Hilton, Marriott, Wyndham and other major hotel brands have dominated the US hotel market since the late 20th century, because it’s relatively easier to get to grips with a uniform legal system and currency in the single US market. Similarly, BTG HomeInns, Jin jiang and China Lodging collectively control more than half of the market share in China’s hotel industry nowadays.