Luxury boutique hotels are looking to expand in Asia as the region lists a growing number of high net worth clientele, a report by The Globe and Mail shows.

"The Asian market is not [yet] as developed as it should be [for us], but it is a market for our future. The share of our Asian clientele should triple with the next five years," Stephane Junca, Asia director of Relais & Chateaux, an association of luxury hotels and restaurants, was quoted as saying.

To stress its commitment to the region, the organisation will be adding a Chinese version to its annual guidebook for the 2011 release, to add to English, French, Spanish, Italian and German. Of Relais & Chateaux's member hotels worldwide, the ones attracting the most number of high-end Chinese consumers are in Canada.

"More and richer Chinese are seeking opportunities in Canada either for their investments or for their children's education," Rachel Wang, managing director of Relais & Chateaux partner agency Great West Travel, reportedly said.

The majority of the association's 400,000 regular clients are from North America and Europe, but since it began operations in Asia in 2008, the company has seen room reservation numbers go up from zero to five per cent.

"The urban population from all of Asia's big cities, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta, will become more important in the years to come," noted Junca.

China is the second largest base of HNW individuals in Asia and the fourth largest in the world, according to the latest Asia Pacific Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. Throughout the region, UHNW individuals, or those with at least $30 million in investable assets, went up 36.7 per cent to 19,600 in 2009, while UNHW wealth jumped 42.6 per cent.