Shangri-La Hotels has opened its US$145 million hotel in Guangzhou. This is the city’s first newly built international five-star hotel since 1983.

It’s a 704-room deluxe hotel on Haizhu Island overlooking the Pearl River and will be followed by four other hotels of the same grade this year — a Grand Hyatt hotel, a Ritz-Carlton, a Westin and a Sofitel.

Then there is a Sheraton hotel scheduled to receive its first guests next year and a W Hotel and a Mandarin Oriental hotel set to join the competition for high-end customers in 2010.

Will they get enough visitors? Almost certainly.

UBS analyst Eric Wong said, ‘There has been no supply of top-tier hotels of an international standard for so long that demand is stagnant, or the other way round. But the sector will not be the same in the years to come as the robust economic growth in the Pearl River Delta region will spur travellers to stay in Guangzhou.’

Together with the Shangri-La, the new inventory in the five-star segment adds 3,400 rooms, or about a 70% increase, from the 5,000 rooms of the city’s six five-star hotels at the end of 2005.

The Shangri-La hotel has plans to build a new tower composed of guest rooms, serviced apartments and a shopping complex, depending on demand.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, visitors to Guangzhou including those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, stood at 5.1 million people, 16.7% higher than in 2004.
Source: EHotelier

Four Points by Sheraton has signed for the first Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Guangzhou. This will be called Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongbao. The brand was first introduced to China with the opening of Four Points by Sheraton Shenzhen (seen here) in late 2004 and subsequently the opening of the first Four Points in Shanghai in 2006. New Four Points by Sheraton additions will be coming to Dalian, Daning-Shanghai, Changshu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou. The new hotel in Dongbaois scheduled to open in 2009.

Miguel Ko, President, Starwood Asia Pacific, said, ‘We are thrilled about the choice location of our new hotel in Guangzhou and are honored to partner with Guangzhou Hejing Real Estate Development to manage this exciting new addition to our portfolio. It will provide the Four Points by Sheraton brand with a great presence in the economic center of the Pearl River Delta.’

Besides Four Points by Sheraton Dongbao, Starwood is currently developing four other new hotels in Guangzhou: The Westin Guangzhou (mid 2007), Sheraton Guangzhou Hotel (2009), W Guangzhou & Residences (2010) and Sheraton Huadu Resort (2009).

Four Points by Sheraton Guangzhou, Dongbao will be located within a mixed-use development consisting of the hotel, offices and residential units in Dongbao area, Guangzhou city. The hotel facilities include 310 guestrooms, over 5,800 square feet of meeting space, three restaurants, a health club and spa as well as an outdoor swimming pool.
Story: Press release

Holiday Inn is offering special guest room rates during the Spring holiday at its hotels in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Daya Bay and Zhuhai from February 16-25 (inclusive).

The hotel brand is operated by InterContinental Hotels Group, which also owns Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.

‘Gong xi fa cai’!
Source: PR Holiday Inn (Chinese website)

This is a little complicated because of the geography. Hengqin is an island in Zhuhai, a prefecture-level city in the Guangdong province of China. That is an unassailable fact. However, it is very close to Macao and, in a sense, could be thought of as an extension to Macao because there is a connecting bridge.

Hengqin is the largest island among the 146 islands of Zhuhai. It is roughly three times the size of Macao. It has all the attributes needed for a resort — broad bays, sandy beaches and beautiful scenery.

Hengqin was formerly made up of two islands, Da Hengqin and Xiao Hengqin but these were recently connected as a result of land reclamation. The reclaimed island is 96 square km which already has one residential development.

Since the land reclamation and development, there has been a growing opinion in Macao that the island should be leased to Macao, where land is very limited and there is little room for further development.

By September 1, 2005, plans were announced that the government of Guangdong province will allow tax exemptions and adopt flexible immigration control in Hengqin to promote investment from Hong Kong and Macao. This would make all the people connected with gambling in Macao very pleased.

Since late 2005, Las Vegas Sands has openly discussed its multi-billion-dollar plans to develop parts of Hengqin Island into a convention and resort destination. The project would include four million sq ft of hotel space. Plus the supporting convention facilities, retail shops, vacation homes, and golf, tennis and yachting amenities.

Think of it as US$12 billion project and you are about right.

An analyst’s report stated that the US$9 billion-US$12 billion project has secured approval. This according to Jefferies & Co analyst Lawrence Klatzkin who cited Sands’ management.

He may have been a bit premature in making this announcement.

All that has happened is that the government of the city of Zhuhai, which oversees Hengqin, has set up a group to help ‘advance’ the plan. Which is a bit different from full approval.

The company did not say if the central government — which typically gets involved in multi-billion-dollar deals involving multinationals — had even got involved.

So the company issued a statement which said: ‘While the formation of a Project Coordination Committee is a positive step forward, the project remains subject to governmental approvals customary for projects of this scale.’

So it has not happened yet. But it does seem imminent.
Source: Business Times Asia

A soft opening — no drums, no bugles - for the Novotel Baiyun Airport Guangzhou. It has 460 rooms and is next to the newly opened Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. That makes it, depending on traffic, 20 minutes from Guangzhou’s Huadu Commercial District with easy access to the Guangzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This is a MICE hotel in that it has a pillarless ballroom (very important for making major presentations where all of the audience needs a clear line of sight to the speaker), another large multi-purpose meeting room and 13 function rooms.
Source: TTG Travel Hub

Forty four- and five-star hotels will be built in Guangzhou in 2007. This is according to both the Guangzhou Municipal Tourism Administration (GMTA) and Guangzhou Municipal Hotel Association (GMHA). The hotels will be part of a new hospitality infrastructure which is needed in the region to meet the demand anticipated for the 2010 Asian Games, which are being hosted in Guangzhou.

Currently, Guangzhou has seven five-star hotels. The aim is that by 2010 there will be over 300 star-grade hotels that can cater to 300,000 guests. The main sites for these hotels of the future will be Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe Road and the Pazhou area.

In addition to these new hotels there will be a lot of upgrading and modernising to bring some older hotels up to four- and five-star standards. These include the Dong Fang Hotel, China Hotel and AiQun Building, all currently being renovated. Already finished are the Asia International Hotel and Phoenix City Hotel Guangzhou which have just been upgraded to five-star level after multimillion-dollar renovations.
Source: TTG Travel Hub