Starwood Hotels & Resorts expects to open 35 new Sheraton hotels over the next 12 months, it was announced today.
Twenty-three of the new properties will open in the Asia-Pacific region, mainly in China, where a Sheraton hotel will open approximately once every three weeks.
The luxury hotel brand will launch in Wuhan, Shaoxing, Nanchang, Zhengzhou, and Qingdao, and add its third property in Beijing and fifth in Shanghai. A further 13 Sheraton hotels are slated to open in China by 2017.
During the coming year, Sheraton will also enter new territories including Samoa, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, and return to Iraq.
Hoyt Harper, Sheraton's global brand leader, said: "Sheraton continues to grow at a phenomenal pace by leveraging its first-mover advantage in markets across the globe.
"Asia-Pacific continues to drive the brand's future pipeline growth, but we are also experiencing strong demand in other emerging markets including eastern Europe and the Middle East.
"In addition, the resounding success of our brand-wide revitalisation and multi-billion dollar investment to enhance the brand over the past several years has led to a growing number of conversion opportunities in more mature markets."
The company will in the next 12 months also open Sheraton Rostov-On-Don Hotel in Russia and the Sheraton Ismayilli Resort & Spa in Azerbaijan.
Last month, Sheraton opened Sheraton Zurich Hotel, the brand's second hotel in the Swiss city (see news, December 16).
Graham Smith
