RAFFLES Hotels & Resorts is eyeing a slice of the booming tourism pie in China’s Hainan province and will leverage its serene location on Clearwater Bay to set it apart from the competition.
Clearwater Bay, touted as Hainan’s new tourism hotspot, lies on the island’s south-east coast and spans 600km2. Developed by Hong Kong’s Agile Property Holdings, there will be a total of six international hotel brands in the area, with Raffles Hainan being among the first to debut. There will also be three 18-hole golf courses, a shopping mall, a 200-berth marina and a water sports hub.
Featuring 299 guestrooms and 32 villas, Raffles Hainan marks the group’s second property in China after Raffles Beijing Hotel. It also aims to set a new precedent for high-level meetings and events in Hainan with its 790m2 ballroom, seven meeting rooms, a VIP meeting room and boardroom.
Although a 40-minute drive from Sanya Phoenix International Airport, Raffles Hainan’s general manager, Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, said this would be its “winning factor” in luring travellers away from Hainan’s popular seaside tourist city Sanya, which is becoming increasingly crowded.
In 2011, over 30 million tourists flooded Hainan (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2012), with the bulk arriving from China.
“(Clearwater Bay) is something new and…we aim to use this novelty factor as our competitive advantage,” Laubichler-Pichler added.
He also revealed that the hotel would focus on attracting Chinese visitors before moving on to target the rest of Asia, including Singapore and South Korea.
