Dubai-based Jumeirah hotel group looks to build ten hotels in China by the end of 2010. This will be the group’s largest expansion into Asia.

Tricia Warwick, Jumeirah VP Sales, said in Gulf News, ‘We are looking all over Asia for new developments but China is a key market. Two-thirds of our 16 hotels in Asia will be in China.’

So far Jumeirah, famous for the Burj Al Arab the world’s tallest all-suite hotel and seen in our illustration, has plans for three properties in China located in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The HanTong Jumeirah Shanghai was recently voted the ‘Most Anticipated Hotel’ in Shanghai at the 2007 World Traveller Awards China chapter although it is very difficult to get excited about an award which seems to have been invented purely for the sake of making an award.

Scheduled to launch August this year, the 338-room hotel is curiously said in the press release as being ’set to take advantage of post-Olympic crowds.’

There is very little evidence that Olympic Games, once they are over, bring crowds of visitors. Or are these business people who have delayed until the games are over?

Currently in Dubai, Jumeirah has four properties under construction. Within three years, the hotel group intends to hold a global portfolio of 57 properties.
Source: eTravel Blackboard

Accor Asia Pacific boss Michael Issenberg, is packing up and moving the company’s regional headquarters to Singapore. He said the siren call of China and India — where Accor is now developing 100 hotels with plans for many more — has proved impossible to resist.

Michael Issenberg said, ‘It was inevitable and could not be put off any longer. The weight of development is now in Asia — we now have more than 330 hotels through the Asia-Pacific region, with more on the way.’

Issenberg sees the biggest opportunities in China.

He said, ‘China is unbelievable — what a future it has. I know my own industry is booming but that is only one small part of a very large picture — I can’t even imagine what is happening elsewhere.’

More than anything else, Michael Issenberg says it’s the speed of change that is most confronting.

He cites an Accor development near Hainan Island in which a 440-room ‘absolutely deluxe five-star hotel’, a 1,500-seat convention centre, a road and bridge were built in just 11 months.

He said, ‘In other places you are shown master plans and it may or may not happen, but in China it always does.’

Accor is putting its own money into the country and wants to own 200,000 rooms in China by 2010. It’s already well on the way, with 60 Ibis budget properties under construction in high-growth areas.
Source: The Australian

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts has opened a new hotel — the Shangri-La Hotel, Chengdu the group’s first hotel in Southwest China.

The hotel is a 25-minute drive from Chengdu International Airport and a 15-minute walk to the Chunxi Road Pedestrian Precinct shopping area.

It is on the historic site of the Swell Fun, the oldest wine lane in the world according to Guinness World Records.

The hotel overlooks the Jinjiang River and is next to Hejiang Pavilion — built during the Tang Dynasty and now considered a lucky site for local residents.

The 593-room hotel also has 26 serviced apartments.

CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La — Shangri-La’s signature spa brand — offers treatments and therapies based on Chinese and Himalayan well-being rituals and traditions. With 11 treatment rooms set in an area of approximately 900 square metres, the Shangri-La Hotel, Chengdu features one of the largest spas among the city’s five-star hotels.

In addition, the hotel’s health club facilities include a gym, indoor swimming pool, outdoor tennis

This is a MICE hotel with a floor space of 2,100 square meters and a nine-meter-high ceiling. Plus a selection of 16 additional function rooms and an auditorium.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

Worldwide Renaissance is reinventing itself with a $2 billion global makeover of all its hotels. At the same time it is planning the opening of the Renaissance Shanghai Zhongshan Park Hotel, Shanghai, China. Think early 2008, in plenty of time for Expo 2010. The 680-room hotel will occupy the top 35 floors of a distinctive 60-story tower. There are eigth meeting rooms, with 1,800 of total meeting space to take care of MICE needs.

As is common nowadays in major cities, tThe hotel will be part of a mixed-use complex that will include retail and office space.

Thus the hotel will be connected to numerous additional dining options, movie theaters, shops, boutiques and offices. A Weider Health Club with state-of-the-art fitness equipment and a 25 meter indoor swimming pool is also located in the same building along Changning Road.

The Regent Beijing ranked 11th in Asia at the recent Condé Nast Traveler US Readers’ Choice Awards 2007. This is only six months after its official opening.

The 500-room luxury hotel in Jinbao Street was ranked 11th for the top 75 hotels in Asia by Condé Nast Traveler readers. And in the world list came in at 56. Which is quite remarkable for a relatively recently opened hotel.

Carlson’s other luxury hotel in China, The Regent Shanghai came in at 20 in in the top 75 best hotels in Asia.

The results were derived from the largest independent poll of consumer preferences — the Readers’ Choice Survey. A record number of over 28,000 readers voted this year.

At another awards ceremony held in Shanghai recently, The Regent Beijing was also named one of the best new hotels by Travel + Leisure, which presented awards for the 100 Best China Hotels. The Regent Shanghai earned the best hotel award (Shanghai and Yangtze Delta), while Carlson’s other brands, the Radisson Hotel Pudong Century Park and Radisson Plaza Xing Guo Hotel Shanghai received awards for best new hotel and best hotel (Shanghai and Yangtze Delta) respectively.

In plenty of time for Expo 2010 — which will be a lot bigger than you can imagine with more than 50 million people attending — Nikko Hotels International has a five-star luxury hotel for Shanghai, scheduled to open in March 2009.

Hotel Nikko Shanghai will be in Manpo International Plaza, a real estate complex now being built that will have two luxury condominium buildings and a luxury office building. The complex is at the corner of Shanghai Puxi area’s main road, Yan An West Road and Zhen Ning Road.

It will have 388 guest rooms in a 25-story building. It will be a MICE hotel with all the usual goodies including a pool, fitness center and spa.
Shanghai Yuchang Real Estate Development, the owner of the hotel, is a leading real estate developer in Shanghai and is also handling the development of Manpo International Plaza.

Nikko Hotels International is an international luxury hotel group operated by JAL Hotels, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines. JAL Hotels has 64 hotels with 20,703 rooms worldwide, in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and throughout Japan and the Asia/Pacific region and they are pretty much focussed on making the business traveler comfortable.

In China there is already the 373-room Hotel Nikko Tianjin, seen in our illustration, while the 500-room Hotel Nikko Wuxi in due in 2009.

Hilton Hotels has signed an agreement to manage the Hilton Guiyang. The property will be developed in two phases — the first phase will be completed at the end of 2008, and will comprise 100 guest rooms and 70 serviced apartments. The second phase will include another 230 guest rooms by the end of 2009.

The hotel will be in the commercial district of Guiyang, one of the largest cities in the western region of China.

In addition to the hotel, the complex will include housing, shopping malls, office buildings and community infrastructure such as a hospital, kindergardens, schools and a culture and science exhibition centre.

Koos Klein of Hilton said ‘The Hilton Guiyang will offer a new and unrivalled destination in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) sector.’

Chunhong Xiao, Chairman of Guizhou Honizon Real Estate Development, said, or a flack wrote for him, ‘We are delighted to work with Hilton for this project, where the development will blend with the beauty of its surrounding environment, appealing to leisure and business travelers alike.’ Sounds flack-ese to me.

The picture of Guiyang is a little larger than normal. That is simply because it is a most beautiful area and pictures hardly do it justice.
Source: Travel Daily News

Jumeirah, a Dubai-based luxury hospitality group, plans to operate five hotels in China by 2011. The hotel management firm, which runs the Burj Al Arab claimed to be the world’s most luxurious inn and self-awarded seven stars, will open its first flagship hotel in the Asia Pacific region — the 338-room Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi — in Shanghai on August 1, 2008.

The 52-hectare development will encompass the hotel, offices, residential and retail space. It is a joint development between Shanghai Hotel Investments Ltd and Shui On Private Group.

The general manager will be Doris Greif, who will be one of Shanghai’s first ever female general managers. She previously worked at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai, where she held the position of general manager since 2004. Before that she was working at the Jumeirah Beach Club Resort & Spa, Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Group’s Corporate Offices.
Source: China.org.cn and PR Jumeirah

Following the opening of two Marriott hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, Marriott has said that it intends to develop another 30 hotels in China before 2010.

The new 23-story, 588-room JW Marriott Hotel Beijing is said to be the 3,000th hotel of the group. J. W. Marriott Jr., the 76-year-old chairman of Marriott International, which claims to be the world’s largest hotel group, said Marriott would operate 11 hotels in Beijing by the opening of the 2008 Olympics. Another 20 Marriott International-branded hotels will be launched in by 2010. Marriott will increase the number of hotels it operates in mainland China and Hong Kong to 48 by the end of 2010.

The new hotels in are part of the global expansion of the 80-year old hotel group which currently operates and franchises hotels under the JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Bulgari brand names.

The global hotel chain has also signed memorandums of understanding with local counterparts for an additional 32 new hotels, to take advantage of a thriving Chinese economy and fast-growing demand for domestic travel.

The international lodging group, which operates under brand names such as Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton, opened its first hotel in China in the northeastern city of Shenyang in 1997.

Apparently it will now concentrate a lot of effort on second and third tier cities throughout China.
Source: Forbes

Consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels is of the opinion the outlook is rosy for the hotel market in Beijing and Shanghai in the next two years, with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Shanghai World Expo just around the corner. This is a conclusion that has been universally accepted. However, the consultancy has put some figures on it.

Andreas Flaig, executive vice-president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, expects the number of rooms at internationally branded hotels in Shanghai to grow 76% to 33,000 by 2010, while Beijing’s total will more than double to 27,000 by 2009.

About 27,000 branded hotel rooms will be rolled out in Shanghai this year, 8,240 of which will be new.

Many world-class hotels are in the pipeline for the two cities. A 190-room Four Seasons hotel will be opened in Shanghai’s Pudong District next year, while a Mandarin Oriental hotel with 203 rooms is also scheduled to open in 2008 in Beijing’s Chaoyang District.

Andreas Flaig said the vibrant economy and tourism industry of the two cities is creating strong demand for the hospitality sector that could be sustained well into the next decade.

In Beijing, last year, five-star hotels achieved the highest RevPAR (revenue per available room) since 1994. RevPAR for the first six months of the year has outperformed the same period in 2006. A similar pattern was observed in the four-star segment. What will happen during the Olympic Games will be a massive spike. What will be interesting is if a small hotel recession follows the end of the games.
Source: China Daily