Europe's budget hotels lure emerging mkt tourists

LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) Small and medium-sized hotels in Europe will benefit most from an expected boom in tourists from the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), a report said on Monday.

The middle classes in these four countries were set to grow to 300 million from 220 million in the next 20 years, becoming an increasingly key source of spending on international travel and ''giving hoteliers a whole new market to cater for,'' the report by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels said.

Mark Wynne-Smith, chief executive for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in Europe, said there were 8.3 million Indian and 34.5 million Chinese visitors to Europe last year and that the overall figure was likely to rise to 100 million by 2020.

He said international hotel brands such as InterContinental Hotels Group's Express by Holiday Inn or Accor's Ibis were already well known to BRIC residents and were likely to benefit from their visits to Europe.

Established Asian chains such as Taj, Oberoi and Shangri-La were seeking to expand their portfolios across Europe but were focused more on the luxury end of the market.

REUTERS SR HS2003