CLOSE to a year after it acquired the US luxury brand Rosewood Hotels & Resorts for US$229.5 million (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 21, 2011), New World Hospitality (NWH) has finally announced the first Rosewood in Asia – a property in Beijing owned by its parent, New World Group.
NWH chairman Sonia Cheng, in an email interview with TTG Asia e-Daily, said Rosewood Beijing would “point the way forward for Rosewood”.
While Rosewood Beijing will exemplify the brand’s trademark of ‘A Sense of Place’, it would also introduce “a design direction and operational philosophy that we feel expresses an evolved and enhanced understanding of contemporary travellers’ tastes”, according to Cheng.
“Rosewood Beijing will point the way forward for Rosewood and it’s fair to say that it represents an evolved direction for the brand and is key to its expansion plans. This is the first ‘new direction’ Rosewood hotel, in one of the most sophisticated and competitive markets in the world. This hotel will act as a shop window to introduce the Rosewood brand to a very discriminating market, including potential guests for ultra-luxury Rosewood hotels internationally and also for our future Asia properties,” Cheng said.
The 279-room property will open in summer 2013 in the Chaoyang District opposite the CCTV Tower. It is designed by Melbourne-based Bar Studio. Swiss Marc Brugger has been appointed as its managing director.
There are 18 Rosewood hotels in operation in the US, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic and the Middle East. Several, such as The Carlyle in New York, The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas and Las Ventanas in Mexico, are icons of the destinations they are in. New projects announced had until now been outside Asia in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Bahamas.
Cheng’s target is for 10 Rosewood hotels in operation or pipeline in Asia by 2017, but to also expand Rosewood in new international markets, doubling its current portfolio within the same timeframe.
“We intend to grow both through managing hotels owned by our parent company and managing hotels by independent owners. The former approach allows us to control our destiny, build a strong and identifiable brand, and quickly capitalise on opportunities and evolving customer needs. Management contracts allow us to penetrate more markets, more quickly,” she said.
