China's blossoming economy hotel industry

from today's STR hotel news briefs (1/18/2008):

Economy Hotel Development Trends in Mainland China
By Li Chen and Fiona Fang -- HVS

"Since the first opened in 1997, economy hotels in mainland China have spread far and wide, filling a need for millions of business and leisure patrons seeking a convenient, economical, and increasingly comfortable place to rest.

Demand for Economy Hotels in Mainland China

China has become an important tourism destination in Asia and the fifth-largest tourism country in the world (measured in number of international tourist arrivals).[1] The inflow of foreign tourists runs beside a strengthening stream of domestic tourists, whose numbers reached nearly 1.4 billion in 2006. Domestic tourism alone generated US$781.9 billion last year, nearly 20 times the revenue of 2000." ...

[1] People's Daily online (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200211/21/eng20021121_107170.shtml)

for the complete story with charts