InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced Tuesday the signing of the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace Beijing, scheduled to open in early 2008.

The announcement highlights IHG's fast growth in China, where it now has 65 hotels in operation and an additional 60 in the pipeline.

Patrick Imbardelli, chief executive of IHG Asia Pacific, said: "China is set to become the world's number one tourism market in the next 10 to 15 years. We already have a good profitable business model."

"We continue to explore new opportunities to maintain our leading position so that we can capture the growing inbound and outbound demand in the years to come", he said.

Crowne Plaza Sun Palace Beijing is being developed by Yunnan Metropolitan Construction Investment Co Ltd and will be managed by IHG.

The 540-room hotel will be located in the city centre, close to the Beijing International Exhibition Centre.

IHG's fourth Crowne Plaza in Beijing, the hotel will have seven restaurants and bars and over 3,400 square metres of meeting space.

IHG is also developing the InterContinental Qingdao located within the Olympic integrated complex, the InterContinental Beijing North -- Beijing Olympic Centre's first luxury hotel -- and Crowne Plaza International Airport Beijing, IHG's first airport hotel in China.