Accor’s relationship with China is stronger than ever following the announcement that it has formed a long-term alliance with Huazhu Hotels Group (also known as China Lodging Group) with more than 2,000 hotels in the pipeline.

Reinforcing this news is the fact that Accor will once again participate at IT&CM China in April 2015.

Accor Greater China Vice President of Sales and Marketing Bobby Ong said, “The IT&CM China platform allows us to build brand exposure for our new hotels. This is where we can secure new leads and businesses from the one-to-one appointments we have with these buyers.

“The Chinese market is important for Accor. We have been here since 1985 with our first hotel and we are still growing aggressively. There is a lot of demand in the second and third tier cities inline with business growth and travel, and hotels are predominately catering to the Chinese market.” Chinese buyers constitute 70% of IT&CM China’s buyers profile and hail from cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Changsha, Hangzhou, Nanjing and many more.

“We want to educate the Chinese market about Accor brands – Sofitel, Novotel, Pullman – so that they understand the different value proposition of each brand, and what the brand stands for,” said Ong.