JW MARRIOTT Thailand is in search of new core leisure business outside of Europe for its two resorts and city hotel.
“In the last 18 years, there has been a glut of new rooms in Bangkok. I don’t even know how it is to operate in a sellers’ market anymore,” said Peter Caprez, general manager of JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok.
“New hotels will always attract leisure business because they are new and they have attractive prices. There is an initial attraction, especially for Asian markets, to new hotels, but when things settle down and those hotels have to ramp up their rates, the business goes back to established hotels (like ours),” he remarked.
“JW Marriott Bangkok has cultivated the Middle Eastern market for 10 years now at a time when people were still looking at established markets, particularly in Europe,” noted Caprez.
The hotel chain also sees market potential in China, where it has partnered with Ctrip, and also in Mumbai.
JW Marriott in Phuket is also looking for customers beyond its traditional sources of Germany, Scandinavia, Austria, Switzerland and the UK, with its eye set on Russia, Eastern Europe, China and India, said general manager Tony Pedroni.
JW Marriott in Khao Lak, on the other hand, is targeting Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia to fill its low-season, short-stay market, said general manager Ty Collins.
