China's largest luxury hotel group, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, continues to expand on the mainland, where it already has 16 hotels, with the announcement today of a new management agreement to operate a five-star hotel in Haikou, Hainan Province in southern China. The 364-room Shangri-La Hotel, Haikou will open in 2005 following an agreement signed with Hainan First Investment Group.

Designed as the tallest building in Haikou, the 158-metre and 40-storey high hotel is centrally located in the city's commercial district, 30 minutes from Haikou International Airport and 15 minutes from the main railway station and harbour. The Shangri-La Hotel, Haikou will have large, spacious rooms with the standard rooms ranging between an impressive 40 to 55 square metres in size. There will be 120 junior suites, two senior suites and four presidential suites, each 500 square metres. Other facilities include a wide range of restaurants and extensive meeting and recreation facilities including a spa and swimming pool.

Commenting on the new project, Giovanni Angelini, Shangri-La's chief executive officer and managing director, said: ‘Our aim is for the Shangri-La Hotel, Haikou to be the best business hotel in Hainan Province. It will complement Shangri-La's Sunny Bay Resort, Sanya near Yalong Bay, which will also open in 2005, as our first full beach resort in China.'

Shangri-La currently has 41 hotels in its portfolio in Australia, mainland China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, with a room inventory of over 20,000. In addition, it has a number of hotels in the pipeline in China, Malaysia, the Maldives, Dubai, Oman and Qatar.