Center Parcs is to open two holiday villages in China by 2020.
Resorts near Beijing and the south-eastern city of Fuzhou are planned in a joint venture with the acquisitive conglomerate HNA, owner of Hainan Airlines plus hotels and airports in China.
Emmanuel Brusq, chief executive of the Chinese subsidiary of France’s Pierre et Vacances Center Parcs Group, said that the holiday villages would be aimed at the country’s “middle and upper middle class”.
The potential for growth in China is “huge”, Brusq told the Financial Times, adding: “We can bring the people a natural environment they have forgotten because they live in the city. This is exactly what happened in Europe 20 years ago.”
Chinese conglomerate Fosun showed interest in acquiring Center Parcs in 2015 but instead bought France’s Club Med for $939 million, opening a resort in the island province of Hainan aimed at high-income holidaymakers last year.
The Chinese Center Parcs will be denser than European equivalents because of high land costs in China, hosting 600 to 1,000 holiday cottages and apartments each over 60-80 hectares. Sixty hectares is equivalent to about 100 football pitches.
The company said it could not give precise spending figures but that hundreds of millions of euros would be invested.
Funding will come from HNA Tourism, a subsidiary of China’s giant HNA Group.
HNA bought a 10% stake two years ago in Pierre et Vacances, which will operate the Chinese parks, and the two launched a joint venture in China last year which is 60% HNA-owned.
Cars will be banned from the sites, which will in many respects resemble European equivalents but with some adaptations to local tastes, such as accommodation for one-child families travelling with grandparents, and added swimming instructors in a country where fewer people can swim.
The parks will also have to provide for Chinese consumers who prefer dining out to self-catering.
“In China there will be many more different kinds of restaurants. There will be less cooking in the kitchen in their own villas,” Brusq said, adding that sports facilities would be adapted for a country where “badminton is more important than tennis”.