# Wyndham Eyes China & India Expansion



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*INTERVIEW-Wyndham plans rapid China hotel growth, eyes India *
By Joseph Chaney 

HONG KONG, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The hotel arm of Wyndham Worldwide Corp. aims to expand its China business at an annual rate of 40 percent in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, spearheaded by its Super 8 and Howard Johnson chains. 

"I think it's fair to assume that the very strong growth over the next couple of years will be consistent with the growth we've seen so far," Wyndham Hotel Group Chief Executive Steven Rudnitsky told Reuters. 

Wyndham, which also owns the Ramada, Days Inn, Baymont, and Wingate Inn hotel brands, franchises or manages 60 properties in China, up from 35 a year ago but less than 1 percent of its worldwide total. 

Wyndham Hotel Group, with more than 6,400 hotels under its umbrella, most of which are in the United States, counts for approximately 27 percent of Wyndham Worldwide's earnings. 

Wyndham Worldwide, which was spun off by Cendant Corp. and also runs a timeshare business, told Reuters in August it expected revenue to grow 8-11 percent annually over the next 2-3 years. 

"As the economy continues to improve, there's far more travel than ever before in China," Rudnitsky said. "And it's becoming an important feeder market for Hong Kong, Macau and other Asian countries." 

The company hopes a strong brand in China will benefit its hotels across Asia as Chinese tourists start to venture abroad. 

The Chinese hotel market, worth around US$15 billion in annual gross room revenue, was growing at an annual rate of about 15 percent, Rudnitsky said. 

In comparison, the U.S. market is worth around US$120 billion, and the whole Asia-Pacific market, dominated by Japan, is worth about US$115 billion. 

Rudnitsky is also looking to expand Wyndham's businesses in other developing Asian markets including Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and India. 

Industry experts say India, despite an economy growing at around 8 percent annually, only has about 20,000 international-standard hotel rooms, compared to 65,000 in tiny Singapore. 

Wyndham is looking for a joint-venture partner to manage hotels in India where it runs a dozen properties, but Rudnitsky was cautious about the company's pace of growth in that market. 

India opened its construction industry to inward investment in early 2004, but many investors complain of confused property titles and frequent land disputes, fuelled by soaring property prices. 

"There are growth opportunities but there's greater complexity by virtue of their infrastructure, by virtue of title and land," Rudnitsky said.


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