Luxury hotel chain eyes huge growth through tailor-made services for Chinese travellers
Plans have already been agreed for the opening of 24 hotels in China under the Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts brand, which will cater to discerning mainland tourists, with the latest set to open in Jiangxi province
The first luxury hotel chain to offer tailor-made services to the growing number of Chinese travellers in their homeland is set to open the second of its hotels in the next few weeks – right in the nation’s heartland.
InterContinental Hotels Group, which launched its Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts brand in February 2012, opened is first Hualuxe hotel – the 282-room Hualuxe Yangjiang City Centre, in Guangdong province, in February.
Its second 281-room hotel, Hualuxe Nanchang High Tech Zone, is to open within the next few weeks in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province.
Yet the company has big plans for the brand in future – across the mainland and around the world.
Richard Solomons, chief executive officer of the global hotel chain, said mainland Chinese customers would be the main driving force of the Hualuxe brand, which derived its name from the Chinese word hua, meaning “majestic China” plus luxe, referring to luxury.
Chinese customers had become increasingly sophisticated in their travelling needs which meant that a luxury hotel brand that offered them tailor-made services was now very important, he said.
“There is a real need for this kind of hotel,” he said. “China’s rising middle class want something different. There may be rich or not so rich, but they are people who want to spend.
“We are not trying to appeal everybody, but when you look at some of the other global hotel brands, [their hotels] are all the same,” Solomons said.
“We have very ambitious plans for Hualuxe with hotel openings in 100 cities by 2030,” Solomons said.
The company has already signed agreements for 24 Hualuxe hotels in China, in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xian.
Kenneth Macpherson, IHG’s chief executive for Greater China, said its first hotel in Yangjiang already had many leading business figures among its customers, including numerous people working in the commercial sector who used the hotel as the venue for important corporate events and business meetings.
He said the second hotel in Nanchang – situated between the 39th to 56th floors at the top of one of the city’s tallest buildings in the newly developed high-tech zone – would serve to meet a growing demand among business customers travelling to the city to work in its rapidly expanding aviation and high-tech industries.
Targeting upscale domestic consumers, the design of the interior of the Nanchang hotel featured symbols of Chinese culture and heritage that reflected traditional customs.
Wall decorations in guest rooms used patterns of plum flowers, orchids, chrysanthemums and bamboo, and the corridors porcelain decorations reflecting Chinese culture, while the hotel’s ballroom carpet featured a Chinese ink painting pattern.
Solomons said the Nanchang hotel would also distinguish itself from other global hotel chains through its food and fine dining.
It would have three distinctive restaurants serving Asian and Chinese cuisines, including Cantonese, Sichuan and Hunan, but not Western cuisine. Instead of serving coffee during business meetings, the hotel had designed an area, Luxe Tea, serving fine Chinese tea.
Solomons said that establishing the Hualuxe brand first on the Chinese mainland was the first step of its business plan.
“In future we want to bring the brand outside China for Chinese travellers, such as in London and New York,” he said.
“We see huge growth potential in China’s foreign travellers.”
