As economic growth has slowed in Europe and the United States, Asian locations now dominate lists of the existing and projected hot spots for luxury hotel and resort growth.

　　Tourists from the mainland"s crowded coasts have long treated Lijiang, a city in the Himalayan foothills in Yunnan province, as a scenic getaway.

　　Its hotel choices are still predominantly low and mid-range properties, but a few of the top luxury hotel brands are putting the final touches on properties in the city of 1.2 million in the hope of attracting the country"s growing ranks of wealthy travellers.

　　As economic growth has slowed in Europe and the United States, Asian locations now dominate lists of the existing and projected hot spots for luxury hotel and resort growth. And Asian-based planners from luxury hotel groups say China, the world"s second-largest economy after the United States, is the regional priority.

　　"There are several hot spots there, because China is so massive," said David Spooner, a vice-president of sales and marketing at Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, which opened Lijiang"s first international-standard luxury property in 2006.

　　In April, 253 of the 458 branded luxury hotel projects under construction or in the final planning stages worldwide were in the Asia-Pacific, said STR Global, a hotel research firm. And of the Asia-Pacific projects in all categories, 58 per cent were in China.

　　"China is obviously a key market for us," said Chris Hart, the president of Asia-Pacific hotel operations at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. "I think eventually we will have as many hotels in China as we do in the United States."

　　The group, which manages 31 properties in the US, now has five on the mainland, with a sixth to open this year in Shenzhen and another under construction in Tianjin.

　　Hart said Four Seasons, which is based in Toronto, was expanding across China partly to expose its citizens to the brand and encourage them to stay in other Four Seasons properties around the world.

　　While Beijing and Shanghai already have well-developed luxury hotel markets, they could still accommodate more growth, especially boutique properties with 80 to 150 rooms, said Damien Little, the Asia director at Horwath HTL, an international consulting firm.

　　Some luxury brands - including Mandarin Oriental, Ritz-Carlton and Kempinski - are operating in Sanya, a tropical resort on Hainan Island that has been developing for more than 20 years.

　　But when it comes to luxury and mid-range hotels, "much of China"s development has been urban-related, and Sanya"s really the only significant leisure/resort destination that"s developed to any great scale in the last decade", Little said.

　　Major luxury brands are now wading into second-tier cities that are not typically regarded as tourist magnets. Ritz-Carlton, for example, plans to open hotels in Tianjin and Chengdu.