Best Western plans 60 hotels

Best Western has cancelled plans to build a series of 100 three-star budget hotels in China by 2007, and instead plans to triple the number of its four- and five-star hotels in the country to 60 by 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported.

'China is virgin territory. We're trying to build brand awareness,' the newspaper quoted David Kong, chief executive of Best Western International, as saying.

The company's high-end hotel brand, Premier, will be introduced overseas in greater numbers, with the company having to make adjustments to its US strategy of offering overnight stops because China's car culture cannot yet support a network of such hotels, the report added.

Why is this on this blog?
This is for China not India. I know.

Its just that...China is on a bigger growth curve than us and therefore budget travel should be a bigger market there than here. But could it be, that with rising incomes and influx of better heeled visitors, the budget segment is being given the miss?
If that is the case, then somehow... we could arrive at that cross-road soon.
Think about it!