By Marta Maciag and Nathan Vifflin

(Reuters) -Accor, Europe’s largest hotel group by portfolio, on Thursday raised the bottom end of its forecast range for 2024 core profit on strong demand for its luxury hotels.

The French group, however, said China was weak, echoing other big hotel groups that are seeing declining demand there.

Accor, operator of luxury hotel group Sofitel and budget brand Ibis, now forecasts 2024 gross operating income of between 1.100 and 1.125 billion euros ($1.08 and $1.22 billion), against 1.095 and 1.125 billion euros previously anticipated.

“This good performance was driven in particular by the dynamism of our Luxury & Lifestyle brands,” Accor Chairman and CEO Sebastien Bazin said in a statement.

Luxury is Accor’s fastest growing division, and the group said revenue in the division rose 18% year-on-year in the third quarter, helped by its acquisition last year of Potel & Chabot high-end event catering

Its results for the July-September quarter overall were slightly above expectations, although they were dampened by weaker demand in China’s domestic market.

Third quarter revenue per available room (RevPAR) came in at 5.3%, slightly beating 5.2% growth seen in a company-complied consensus, while RevPAR for China fell 9% year on year.

“Although Chinese customers are travelling abroad, benefiting Southeast Asia in particular, the domestic market remains penalized by the decline in consumption,” Accor said in a statement.

Competitors InterContinental, and Hilton both reported slowdowns in third quarter revenue growth amid a fall in demand in China.

($1 = 0.9264 euros)

(Reporting by Marta Maciag and Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk; Editing by Susan Fenton)