Marriott International Inc., the world's biggest hotel operator, plans to quadruple the number of properties it has in China by 2013 to take advantage of surging demand for rooms in the world's fastest growing major economy.

The Bethesda, Md.-based company plans to have 48 hotels in China, Hong Kong and Macau by 2010, up from the 28 it operates under seven brands including JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, Chief Executive J. Willard Marriott Jr. said last week at a briefing in Shanghai. That number should surpass 100 hotels in five to six years, he said.

Marriott International, which has opened 24 hotels in mainland China since 1997, has sped up development in a bid to win more customers in an economy that surged 11.9 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace in 13 years. Rival Accor SA said in March it planned to add 61 hotels in the Asian nation for a total of 101 properties by 2010.

"This is where it's at," Marriott said. "People from all over the world are coming here to do business."

The company last Thursday opened its ninth hotel in Shanghai, the 341-room Renaissance Shanghai Yuyuan Hotel. Marriott said it would open six new hotels in Beijing in time for next summer's Olympics, scheduled to start Aug. 8. Marriott now has five hotels in the Chinese capital and will open its sixth, the 588-room JW Marriott Hotel Beijing, in November.

The first Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels will also open in Macau by the spring of 2009 along the city's Cotai Strip.

"We always worry about oversupply," Chief Executive Marriott said. "The thing that I think is on our side is that the economy has been growing."

Retail sales in China rose 17.1 percent from a year earlier in August, the fastest pace in more than three years. Disposable incomes for urban households rose 14.2 percent in the first half from a year earlier.

Hotel room bookings at Ctrip.com International Ltd., China's biggest online travel agent, surged 42 percent to 2.41 million nights in the second quarter from 1.7 million a year earlier.