Global hotel group Le Mridien Hotels & Resorts signed an agreement with China Resources Shimei Bay Tourism Development (Hainan) Limited Thursday to manage a deluxe five-star beach resort in Shimei Bay in south China's Hainan Province.

China Resources is going to invest 55 million yuan to build Le Mridien Shimei Bay Beach & Spa Resort, which is due to open in the end of 2007.

The Chinese company had invited Le Mridien to manage the resort in order to make the resort a destination for tourists of higher class.

"We are confident that our experience of operating some of the finest hotels and resorts around the world will make this hotel the new benchmark for five-star resort hotels in China," said Michael Sagild, Asian Pacific regional managing director of Le Mridien Hotels & Resorts.

Hainan Island has the most beautiful beaches in the world, even more charming than those of Phuket in Thailand, Sagild said of Hainan's advantages as a beach resort destination. "The population here, unlike that of Bali or Phuket, is industrious and willing to work for the tourist business," he said.

Hainan's only disadvantage now is that it is still unknown to the world, said Sagild, but the government is making efforts to gather fame, for instance, through the Boao Forum for Asia and Miss World and film festival.

The entry of international tourism groups like us will also help promote Hainan's fame as one of the most beautiful beach resorts in the world, said Sagild.

With a coastline of 6 km, Shimei Bay is marked by the white, soft beach, the extremely limpid seawater and an unpopulated coral island of 14.2 hectares. Experts from the World Tourism Organization regarded Shimei Bay as the most pretty bay of all the undeveloped bays in Hainan Island.

London-based Le Mridien is a global hotel group with a portfolio of more than 130 luxury and upscale hotels in 56 countries. In the 2005 Luxury Brand Status Index survey Le Mridienwas cited as one of the 15 best luxury hotel brands.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2005)