Published – Asian Hotel Brands Make the Journey to Europe

International hotel brands are stepping up their investments in the Asia -Pacific region because of its outsized growth prospects. So it would seem almost counterintuitive for luxury hospitality brands based in Asia to be opening hotels in Europe, where growth is slowing. Yet over the coming months, several well-known Asian brands, including Raffles Hotels and Resorts, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and Meritus Hotels and Resorts, will open their first European properties.

The focus so far of most luxury Asian brands seems to be France, where the biggest-spending tourists are Chinese, according to an industry survey released this week. This summer, the five-star Royal Monceau in Paris is set to reopen as a Raffles property after a refurbishment that took 20 months and cost 100 million euros ($141 million). The first European Shangri-La Hotel will open near the Trocadero, in what was once the palace of Prince Roland Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s grandnephew. In 2012, Peninsula Paris will open in the 1908 building that currently houses the Centre International de Conférences.

For full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/business/global/23hotels.html?