Howard Johnson Signs Hotels In Taiyuan And Fuzhou

Howard Johnson has recently signed two management contracts for Howard Johnson Caton Hotel Taiyuan and Howard Johnson Plaza Fuzhou developed by Shanxi Caton Group and Fuzhou Greattown Group, respectively.

The 40-story Howard Johnson Caton Hotel Taiyuan, will be the first international hotel in the Taiyuan city, located in the heart of the city's commercial and entertainment center. The four-star city business hotel will have 248 rooms, with extensive food, beverage and recreational facilities. The hotel is targeted to be open this September.

Howard Johnson Plaza Fuzhou, a deluxe five-star hotel, is located on Jianbing Avenue in the Economic and Development Zone in Fuzhou. Facing the Ming River, the hotel has 310 rooms, and the conference and meeting facilities will be extensive and state-of-art with five restaurants and bars and other recreational facilities like hot spring spas and swimming pool to complement guest stays.

"The two new hotels are just the starting point for the promising year of the Golden Pig. Although the hotel industry is very competitive nowadays, we have the full confidence to be the leader of the industry and strongly believe that the international management model contributes to the building of the infrastructure of the hotel operation, while adaptation of Chinese culture and maximum utilization of local management experts would strengthen and enhance our performance and competitiveness. This is our key to the success," commented Wilburt Chang, chairman and CEO of Howard Johnson International (China).

Presently, 13 Howard Johnson hotels are in operation in cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Hangzhou and Chongqing. There will be 28 hotels open by 2007 and 50 hotels open by 2008 and 100 hotels in China in Howard Johnson's portfolio by 2010.