Shanghai Overseas Chinese City Co Ltd plans to launch a 1 billion yuan ($159 million) hotel project near Shanghai’s Happy Valley to support Playa Maya, a water park under construction.

The five-star hotel will have about 400 rooms to serve tourists visiting the theme park, said Wang Dansheng, deputy general manager of Shanghai Happy Valley, which is affiliated with Shanghai OCT Co Ltd.

Wang made the statements at the China International Travel Mart 2012, which kicked off on Nov 15. Tourism institutions, travel agencies, hotels and airlines from 104 countries and regions are attending the four-day event held at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

Visitors will likely want to spend the night at the Happy Valley and Playa Maya projects — which are scheduled to open on May 1, 2013 — because they won’t have enough time to tour the two parks on the same day, Wang said.

Meanwhile, the company is also mulling plans to build a villas project with 200,000 square meters inside the Happy Valley area, Wang said.

The project, which aims to serve families on holidays, is expected to cost more than 200 million yuan.