Three leading international hotel groups are expanding in Hong Kong to serve anticipated growth in demand from business travellers.

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, a Canadian-based hotel management firm, will manage two new luxury guest and suite hotels in the International Finance Centre (IFC) in the heart of the Central business district. Known as Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong and Four Seasons Suites, the two towers will be the first Four Seasons branded properties in the SAR. Scheduled to open in 2004, they are expected to form the largest six-star facility in Hong Kong.

Best Western International, the world's largest hotel chain with more than 4,000 hotels in 80 countries and regions, recently opened its first hotel in Hong Kong. The 33-storey Best Western Rosedale on the Park Hotel & Suites in Causeway Bay is billed as a Cyber Boutique facility. Rosedale claims to be "the world's first custom built, high-tech hotel offering guests a wide array of technological amenities."

Meanwhile, UK company Bass Hotels & Resorts (BHR) has strengthened its Inter-Continental brand in Asia-pacific with the acquisition of the 514-room Regent Hotel in Hong Kong for US$346 million. Its managing director Asia Pacific Richard Hartman said the purchase represented a unique opportunity to acquire a landmark property in one of the world's gateway cities.