Face-to-Face: Roland Jegge, Worldhotels
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Roland Jegge, Vice President Asia Pacific, Worldhotels
1) Can you please tell us about Worldhotels’ portfolio expansion so far in 2011?
2011 will be marked as a very strong development year. We have seen a strong progress in China - adding two resort hotels in Hainan and Zhangjiajie and four city properties in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Changsha and Wuxi. In Macau we added the brand new 1,500 room Galaxy Hotel. In Sydney the first five-star hotel opening since the Olympics, the stellar The Darling, will be joining our Deluxe Collection Portfolio. Further additions are located in Tokyo and in India where we have expanded with Mumbai, Chandigarh as well the superlative 10,000 acres resort Aamby Valley City to enhance our hotel portfolio.
2) Last year Worldhotels launched a new branded hotel solution; how has this been received by the industry, and what is your current portfolio of branded hotels?
The branded solution was created for those hotels who are competing head-on with the international branded hotels and needing the strong support from an international brand - whilst still keeping their independence. Our first branded hotels are located in Hamburg, Munich, Almaty, De Hague as well as in Asia in Wuxi and Chandigarh with a strong pipeline of demand in China, India and Indonesia where we are working with partner companies to support us in the area of technical expertise and even hotel management.
3) You recently opened your first office in India; to what extent do you see emerging markets like India and China driving Worldhotels’ growth in the years to come?
We have seen dramatic increase in bookings from India customers over the past years on the one hand, and on the other hand there is a large amount of upper upscale new hotels being built which could qualify for the Worldhotel brand and respond to our need to offer more hotels for our customers travelling to the Indian Sub-Continent.
4) What has the response been like for your new online meetings tools?
The enhancements that have been made have shown encouraging results. The ability to filter by meeting type as well as input search for more than one destination, among others, has generated more interest and we have seen an increase in online enquiries channelled to our Group Desks. We aim to continually improve the site not just in content, value added offerings but also in enhanced user friendliness and speed which is critical for meeting planners and event organisers.
5) What further developments can we expect from Worldhotels in 2011?
You will see the first branded Worldhotels appearing in Asia Pacific with the 370 room five-star Worldhotel Grand Juna Wuxi opening in November. We have further branded Worldhotels in our pipeline in Bali, Manila, Chandigarh and Melaka.
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