bcbusiness.ca July 2014 BCBusiness 59
As the share of Chinese visitors and
their impact on B.C.'s $13.5-billion tourism
economy grows, the province is seeing some
high-profile investments in the hospitality
sector from Chinese interests.
For Forebase International Holdings it
was a matter of seeking the right property
in the right market. Last October the com-
pany, based in Chongqing, China, bought
Victoria's luxury Brentwood Bay Resort and
Spa for nearly $14 million. It's the first North
American investment for Forebase, which specializes in hotel
real estate and has several properties in Mainland China. The
company declined to comment about its investment; however,
Randy Holt, vice-president of
DTZ Victoria Real Estate Ltd. and
the realtor who handled the sale for Brentwood's former man-
aging director Dan Behune and his partners, believes Forebase
is on the hunt for other hotel properties in B.C.
"Brentwood was the company's first
investment in North America and I don't
think it will be its last," Holt says.
Also last October, Richmond-based
SSS
International Travel Co. Ltd. got a devel-
opment permit and unanimous approval
from Nanaimo city council, complete with
a 10-year property-tax exemption, to con-
struct a $50-million, 240-suite hotel with a
rooftop restaurant on the city's waterfront.
The group expected to break ground this
spring, with an anticipated opening in 2016.
SSS, which also
declined an interview request, is a subsidiary of Suzhou
Youth Travel Services Co. Ltd. and one of China's largest
travel companies, with annual gross revenues of more than
$175 million.
SSS's Nanaimo investment is a bold effort to ver-
tically integrate the supply chain by delivering clients to their
own hotel, and the Vancouver Island city of some 80,000 is
in many ways China is a
natural fit for the province's
tourism sector. As a Pacific
rim gateway, b.C. has a large
and influential ethnic Chinese
population, numbering more
than 400,000
p056-061_ChineseTourists_july.indd 59 2014-05-29 10:08 AM
