Dorsett hotels follow the ‘Chinese wallet’
Dorsett Hospitality's Winnie Chiu talks about the hotel operator's expansion plans and how her strategy of following the 'Chinese wallet' is paying off in a highly competitive industry
Winnie Chiu's strategy of following the "Chinese wallet" - which focuses on running three- or four-star hotels where mainland tourists congregate - has allowed Dorsett Hospitality International to outflank rival hoteliers in a highly competitive industry.
Chiu, whose father David Chiu is chairman of Far East Consortium International and chairman of Dorsett, has more than 10 years of experience in finance, hotels, property development and retail management.
She joined Far East in 2005 and was instrumental in the spinning off of Dorsett Hospitality International.
Winnie Chiu was appointed executive director in 2010 and president in 2011 of the hotel chain. Far East owns 74.31 per cent of Dorsett, which owns and manages 31 hotels on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Britain.
Previously, Chiu worked at Credit Suisse. She has been a director of Malaysia Land Properties since 2003, where she helped develop Plaza Damas, one of Malaysia Land's flagship projects in Kuala Lumpur, comprising serviced apartments, a hotel and a shopping centre. She has been a non-independent and non-executive director of developer Land & General in Malaysia since 2008.
In 2007, Chiu founded Freshness Burger Hong Kong, a chain of Japanese-style fast-food restaurants, now closed.