AccorHotels sees challenges in Asia-Pac expansion

ACCORHOTELS is ramping up its Asia-Pacific presence to capture the region's booming travel demand amid demographic and economic shifts.

However, so are many other hotel groups - and that is causing problems such as an oversupply of hotel rooms in some cities and an industry-wide management staff crunch.

AccorHotels' Asia-Pacific chairman and CEO Michael Issenberg talked about the group's plans and the industry's problems in a recent interview with The Business Times. He said that even though only a quarter of the French group's rooms globally are currently in this region, half of its hotels worldwide that will open in the next three to five years are in Asia-Pacific.

Furthermore, the group plans to expand in Asia-Pacific faster than anywhere else in the world - within the next few years, this region should see the addition of about 250 hotels, or 55,00…