Starwood CEO Frits van Paasschen described China as one of the world's largest outbound tourism markets with more than 100 million trips abroad a year - 10 times the number of trips by Japanese tourists, who had a profound impact on the industry in the 1980s.

"When Chinese do travel, they are going to stay in the brands that they know from home, which will have a meaningful effect on our business globally and underscores why we are investing so heavily in this critical market now," Van Paasschen said.

Avril, who travels to Asia several times a year, said Starwood's top management works on their China strategy every day.

By 2012, China will become the second largest market for Starwood outside the United States.

"And there is no reason why China should not be our largest market," said Avril, but when, he did not know.

Starwood now has 500 hotels in North America, including the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

He believes that with 170 cities in China with a population of 1 million or more, compared with some 35 markets in the US with 1 million residents, there are enormous opportunities and a bright future for all Starwood brands in China.

Starwood expects to open 80-100 additional hotels in 2010, 20 of which will be in China.

According to data from STR Global, a hotel industry watcher, there are 360 hotel projects comprising 124,109 rooms either planned or under construction in China.

The hotel group includes Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien and St Regis-branded hotels.

Starwood is going to open its first W hotel on the Chinese mainland later this year in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

China Construction Bank (CCB), the country's second largest lender, would strictly control its overseas operation risks and diversify assets in the future after exposing 1 billion U.S. dollars to Dubai World debt, a senior executive said Friday.

CCB vice president Fan Yifei told Xinhua that the bank would give priority to developing overseas business closely related to domestic operations while gradually putting risk management of overseas branches under a uniform risk control system.