The Tangla Hotel Tianjin is the first mainland Chinese hotel to be given the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences' International Six Star Diamond Award, according to hotel owner the Hainan Airlines Group (HNA).

Steven Song, chairman and president of HNA, says the award shows that China is able to develop top hotel brands which can compete with foreign names such as Hilton and Starwood.

"Awareness of the Tangla brand as a homegrown Chinese national luxury hotel brand has been continuously promoted, and its social influence has also improved," said Song.

HNA was created in 1997 and the Tangla brand was lunched in 2008, with the aim of created a world class Chinese hotel brand. The group plans to take the Tangla brand to the world with plans to open in the US and Europe.

The award was created by the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences (AAHS) in New York in 1949, and is the highest honor the academy bestows on the international service industry.

Joseph D Cinque, president of AAHA, said the award came after a "long complicated" evaluation procedure. He said there were only five other award members globally, and two in Asia (the Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo and The Peninsula in Hong Kong).