Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced the launch of a new scheme to target the rapidly expanding Chinese outbound travel market. With an estimated 100 million Chinese expected to travel internationally by 2015, the hotel company has created the ‘Starwood Personalized Travel’ programme – a range of initiatives designed to serve the needs of Chinese travellers. Debuting at 19 properties in gateway cities around the globe, ‘Starwood Personalized Travel’ offers a variety of offerings designed to appeal to Chinese visitors, including in-room tea kettles, slippers, translated welcome materials and on-site translation services. Restaurant menus will also be made available in Chinese and feature familiar dishes like congee.
“As Chinese travellers begin to travel beyond their borders en masse, they, like their Western counterparts before them, will gravitate to the hotel brands they know from home, and with Starwood’s leading footprint in China, this gives us a great advantage,” said Frits van Paasschen, President & CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. “Just as our hotels in China have historically catered to American and European travellers with familiar amenities from home, now our hotels globally will provide the same services to Chinese travellers.”
The new scheme, developed in partnership with Starwood’s Chinese executive team, is being rolled out at 19 global properties, covering six Starwood brands in key cities such as Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, New York, Sydney, Bangkok, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Paris, Seoul and Rome. Features include an in-hotel Chinese specialist to assist guests during their stay, special in-room amenities such as kettles, slippers, instant noodles and toiletries, translated hotel and local area information, and Chinese-friendly menu items.
According to Starwood, many of the selected hotels are experiencing dramatic increases in the numbers of Chinese guests. For example Chinese business has expanded 173% at the W New York Times Square, while at St Regis Monarch Beach in Southern California it has jumped 140%. The rise was even more apparent in Latin America, with a 370% climb at Mexico City’s Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel, and 264% at the Park Tower Buenos Aires. Italy and France remain two of the top European destinations with record new Chinese visitors at The Westin Excelsior Rome, The Westin Paris Vend
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