Accor has signed an agreement for 6 new Ibis hotels in Sichuan province, the largest single expansion of Accor's economy brand in one province of China.

The six hotels will be developed at a total cost of US$150 million.

The agreement was signed by new Accor CEO Gilles Pélisson for 3 Ibis hotels in Chengdu, plus 3 additional hotels in nearby cities Yi Bing, Ya An and De Yang in Sichuan Province. Also present for the historic event were Accor Asia Pacific's Chairman, David Baffsky, and Managing Director, Michael Issenberg, and Accor's General Delegate – China, Shangzhi Zhang.

Accor is accelerating development of its economy-hotel sector throughout Asia Pacific the opening of two Ibis hotels in Bangkok, two in Ibis in Australia, one in New Zealand and a new Ibis for the Korean capital of Seoul.

Next month Accor opens its third Ibis in China, 172-room Ibis Qingdao, which follows the successful opening of the 265-room Ibis Chengdu, last October. The first project – Ibis Tianjin – is opening a 70 room extension to the hotel the end of April. Both hotels have been performing strongly at occupancy levels of over 90% since opening.

During 2006 Accor also plans to open new Ibis hotels in Chongqing, Wuhan, Wuxi and Zhongshan with more openings in 2007 and beyond.

Accor CEO Gilles Pélisson hailed the signing as a major milestone for the pace of Ibis development in China.

We consider China to be one of the most important countries for our group's global development and this agreement reflects our commitment to building a network of Ibis hotels around China, said Mr Pelisson.

Over 2,500 of Accor's total of 4,000 hotels are in the economy hotel sector.