The most-cited challenges at the roundtable included talent recruitment and retention, inadequacy of infrastructure and a lack of travel-related policy support.

Facts and figures

"I believe that China is addressing a number of the issues we are talking about," said Christopher Bachran, president of Jin Jiang International Hotel Management Co Ltd and the honorary chairman of the roundtable.

In the mid-1980s, the international hospitality market was brand new in China with Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou as the primary locations, Bachran said.

Two decades later, in 2004, the revenue generated by China's tourism industry was estimated at 289.2 billion yuan (US$35.6 billion), accounting for 2.3 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

In the same year, 109 million overseas tourists came to China, an increase of 19 per cent from 2003, and the number of Chinese travelling overseas was estimated at 28.85 million, an increase of 42.7 per cent, official statistics show.

The WTTC predicts that China will be the world's fourth-largest tourism market in the years to come.

The Beijing Olympics in 2008 and Shanghai's World Expo in 2010 are expected to bring even more impetus to China's hospitality industry, Bachran said.

Given the tremendous potential, the American Chamber of Commerce recently formed a travel and tourism committee to look at aspects of the market that need to be addressed, he said.

New revenue models

A common topic of discussion was how to do more business particularly at weekends, said John Northen, general manager of JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai & Marriott Executive Apartments.

"What we need to do is to look at ways to improve existing facilities that are available right now and people's awareness of those," Northen said.

Airport efficiency

Another common topic of discussion was airports, specifically delays in international arrivals of up to two hours in getting through customs.

"I know physically there are some challenges there, but I think still there can be an improvement in the human aspect of the service," Northen said.

Human resources

To help the hotel industry grow, Ralph Grippo, vice-president and area general manager of the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, thinks it needs more people.

"We need to have enough people and the right people, because the industry is all about people serving people," he said.

"I would love to see a pipeline - a vehicle to create employees for tomorrow; that is, people who truly want to be in the hotel business," he said.

Grippo believes these people will help promote the hotel industry.

"When people come to Shanghai, whether for business or pleasure or experience, if it's positive, they will tell the world. If it's negative, they will tell the world," he said.

Karel Hujiser, president and CEO of Asia Pacific for GE Infrastructure, a TOP partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, agreed the infrastructure industry suffers similar issue.

Besides the growing need for hotel personnel, the pool of experienced hospitality experts is diminishing, Bachran said. The Jinjiang group plans to open 16 hotels and inns in the next three years.

"In fact, we are putting our heads together to try to decide how we are going to staff those hotels," Bachran said. "I know there are hospitality schools in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but I am not sure they will be able to address the need of the industry - the need for experienced mid-level management, experienced housemaids, room attendants, chefs and staff all across the area.

Compensation schemes, long working hours, staff transfer and other issues have not been properly addressed, he said

Ronald Chao, a partner with Deloitte, agreed that the people issue is one the service industry has been struggling with.

"When I first joined Deloitte, there were only 130 people," he said. "In September we had 1,000, and our goal is to have 2,000 staff in one or two years."

Then Chao quoted a joke by a colleague to illustrate the lack of qualified people: "If you want to find a lizard with three legs, you can't find them anywhere. But if you want to find human beings with two legs, there are plenty of them.

"We need a human capital pool that can serve our clients at a global standard," he said.