Growth in international hotels coincides with government effort to push region as a tourism destination

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32905914

Archived

Here is the original report, It Does Matter Where You Stay: International Hotel Chains in East Turkistan.

Key takeaways:

  • Five international hotel chains—Accor, Hilton, InterContinental (IHG), Marriott, and Wyndham—currently operate in the Uyghur Region amidst ongoing crimes against humanity and genocide.

  • International hotel chains have significantly expanded their presence in the Uyghur Region, with at least 115 hotels operational as of April 2025. At least another 74 hotels are in various stages of planning or construction from Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Minor Hotels, and Wyndham. A total of 189 hotels from international chains are either open, or are planned to open, in the Uyghur Region.

  • Three international hotel chains—Hilton, IHG, and Wyndham—are located in areas administered by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) (新疆生产建设兵团), an entity under targeted sanctions by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, for its grave and systematic human rights violations.

  • Hilton, through a franchisee, built a Hampton by Hilton hotel on the site of a demolished mosque in Khotan, following an extensive government campaign that left more than 10,000 mosques destroyed throughout the region. Despite international scrutiny, including an inquiry from the US Congress in 2021, the hotel opened for visitors in 2024.

  • Accor has been exposed to Uyghur forced labor in two ways: (1) through a franchisee’s participation in a “labor transfer” program called the Hundred Project (百名工程); and (2) through its strategic partner in China, H World Group Limited (华住酒店集团), which has benefitted from “Xinjiang Aid” (对口援疆) programs, identified by experts as a high-risk indicator of Uyghur forced labor.

  • Ownership structures and management partnerships between international hotel chains and Chinese companies link international chains to state-owned companies, creating ties that financially benefit and advance the interests of a government responsible for crimes against humanity.

  • Hilton Hotels in the Uyghur Region host state propaganda events and promote tourism sites that erase a non-state version of Uyghur culture and history.

  • International hotel chains’ operations in the Uyghur Region may be in violation international standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, and the International Labour Organization’s Forced Labour Convention (C29) and Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (C105).