The InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) has signed contracts to manage six new hotels in China.
The hotels in Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan province, Central China will add 4,500 rooms to the chain's room count.
IHG, which says it is the largest international hotel operator in China, aims to reach a total of 125 hotels and add up to 60,000 to its room count in the country by 2008. It currently has 50 properties.
Three of the new hotels, an InterContinental and two Holiday Inns will be in the $620m New Century City international convention and exhibition centre now being built in Chengdu.
In the tourist district of Jiuzhaigou, there will be an InterContinental, a Holiday Inn and an Express by Holiday Inn.
The owner of all six properties is the Chengdu International Exhibition and Convention Group which also has extensive interests in exhibitions and conventions, hotels, travel agencies and real estate.
Andrew Cosslett, IHG's ceo, said: "Developing hotels in China lies at the heart of our growth strategy for IHG.
"This deal marks a major milestone as we move towards meeting our aggressive growth plans."
Sabre signs full content deals with two airlines
Sabre Travel Network has signed two full-content deals with Virgin Atlantic and SAS.
Under the deal, both carriers will give the GDS's agents full access to all their fares including their website fares.
The SAS, deal which runs until 2007, also includes access to the fares of Wideroes, the Norwegian carrier owned by the Scandinavia airline.
Sabre has also recently signed similar deals with two leading US carriers, US Airways and Northwest Airlines.
SAS also signed a full contents deal with Amadeus last summer.