Hilton posts Hong Kong growth

Hong Kong Hilton International has announced a 19 per cent growth in year-on-year business out of Hong Kong for Q1 2004, putting the territory in its top three regional markets after Japan and Singapore. At this month's Hong Kong roadshow, the global hotel chain's vice-president, business development, Gunnar Brandberg said. "Our belief is that within the next three-to-five years we will double our business out of Hong Kong into the Hilton regional network." Brandberg flagged a "spike" in Japan's leisure, as well as its incentive market, as an encouraging barometer of regional travel industry health. Despite two new Hilton properties coming online in China including the recently rebranded Hilton Shenzhen (formerly the Panglin Hotel) and the Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa - slated to open in 2006 - Brandberg remained circumspect about PRC expansion. "We see very strong development in China, and that large growth and expansion (in the hotel industry) is related to the two-and-three-star market. Hilton, as four-and-five-star properties, is reluctant to roll out hotels in China before we see the market is mature enough to support the five-star hotels we have," he noted. Ushering in 18 new Asia Pacific properties in the next two years, the standalone Hilton brand has yet to launch in the HKSAR independently of the existing Conrad Hong Kong.