This year is likely to set a record for globe-trotting Chinese travellers during the lunar new year. While roughly the population of the US is expected to return home to see family, 6m people will go overseas. ForwardKeys, a bookings analysis firm, expects international air traveller numbers will rise by one-tenth year-on-year, based on reservations from a month before the holiday season began. Even if such tourists are choosing once more to buy luxury goods at home, hotel rooms will still be in demand.
International brands are mostly limited to higher end chains such as Marriott and Hilton Worldwide, of which Chinese conglomerate HNA is buying one quarter. But cheaper names more familiar to Chinese travellers are expanding too. Chinese budget chains are moving overseas in a bid to capture the more adventurous (and usually better off) traveller. They are following in the footsteps of Anbang, the insurance group, which bought New York’s Waldorf Astoria, but was pipped to the post by Marriott to purchase Starwood.
Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels is one group making the leap. It operates in around 60 countries, but its overseas rooms make up just one-fifth of the total. With a highly competitive domestic market, this will need to grow. Last year the Hong Kong-listed business bought four-fifths of Plateno through its Shanghai-listed subsidiary, Jin Jiang Hotels Development.