Hilton to add 300 hotels in Asia over decade: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hilton Hotels Corp wants to add 300 hotels to the 47 it operates in Asia in the next decade in a bid to match its rivals and take advantage of a business and leisure travel boom in India and China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The value of those hotels would be in the tens of billions of dollars, Hilton Chief Executive and President Chris Nassetta told the Journal.

Nassetta's comments come after he said earlier this month that Eastern markets offer good opportunities as weaker consumer spending, troubled airlines and rising gasoline prices threaten to eat into U.S. hoteliers' domestic businesses.

The company is focusing initially on India, where it has a joint venture with local property company DLF Ltd , which wants to open 75 hotels in the next five years, Nassetta told the paper. It wants to add 18 hotels in the next four years to the five it already runs in China, the Journal reported.

Rival Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc owns or operates 136 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, and has 95 more in the pipeline, the Journal said, adding that 90 percent of them are under construction.

Marriott International Inc operates about 85 hotels in the region, including Hawaii, and plans to add as many as 80 properties in the next three to five years, the Journal reported.

It said French hotel company Accor SA has 180 hotels in Asia, 50 of them in China.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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