Four Seasons Hotel,a Canada-based world-top restaurant group,opened a new outlet in Shanghai yesterday.It's the first hotel the group has ever managed in China.

Holding a 21 percent stake in the new hotel,Four Seasons joins hands with the Shanghai Industrial Group,the Wenhui Daily reported today.

"It's also the first time our group has funneled such a large sum into a joint-stock hotel,"president of the Four Seasons Global said. As general,the group only manages the technical input,keeping their cash input within the 10 percent threshold.For example,Four Seasons manages 55 pageant hotels and restaurants in the world but has invested only in scores of them.Before the opening of the hotel in Shanghai,Four Seasons'cash input in each hotel has never surpassed 10percent(of the hotel's total registered capital).

"We are expecting a lot from our investment this time,"the president said,expressing his wish that the hotel will be as gorgeous as its name depicts throughout the coming years-be as splendid ten years from now as today.

"The travel industry is about to rebound and I believe Shanghai will bring new fortune to us,"he added.

History shows that post-recession era will buoy the travel industry.The recent three florescence of the industry all came after the economic recession or political instability.The first boom came in the 1980s after the Mexico peso slump,the second in 1990s after the US securities market collapse and the third more recently after the Gulf War.

( eastday.com January 29, 2002)