Following in the footsteps of the Chinese companies that bought high-end tourism assets abroad, China’s budget hotel chains are beginning their own overseas push to serve the country’s swelling numbers of international travellers.
Anbang, the conglomerate, was among the investors making headlines in the sector when it bought New York’s Waldorf Astoria for $1.95bn in 2014. Now it is the turn of the low-cost hotel groups.
With some 2,500 hotels in China, the 7 Days Inn is a mainstay of budget travel in the country. As its home market slowed, the brand opened locations in Austria’s Linz and Salzburg last year, while a 95-room “7 Days Premium” hotel will this week open in Vienna with easy connections to the Schönbrunn Palace. Other 7 Days Premium hotels are due to open in Berlin, Munich, Leipzig and Venice in the next 12 months.