SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts is in an expansion rage across the globe with a special focus on China, where more than half of its future developments are to be located.
The company’s director of corporate communications, Lori Lincoln, said: “China is a major focus for the group…In addition to being in major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, where we have multiple properties, we’re expanding to key secondary and up-and-coming cities such as Heifei and Diqing.”
Of Shangri-La’s total business, leisure travel accounted for 30 per cent and is growing, especially from mainland Chinese guests.
“We are seeing more bookings from China for our resorts in the Maldives, Malaysia and Singapore. We have also seen a major increase in holiday stays at our China and overseas hotels from that market, with new destinations such as Huhhot in Inner Mongolia and Guilin becoming very popular,” she said.
Between 2014 to 2017, Shangri-La is set to open a total of 30 properties across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, over 50 per cent of which will be in mainland China.
The group just added two more properties to its 80-strong China portfolio with the launch of Shangri-La Hotel, Qufu (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 7, 2013) and Shangri-La Hotel, Shenyang (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 26, 2013) on August 1.
When asked what Shangri-La was doing to drive further bookings, Lori said the group had established a Global Travel Agency Advisory Board consisting of 19 members based around the world to build stronger relationships with luxury travel advisors to better raise the brand profile.
The group was also tailoring promotions to seasonal demand and distributing such offers through all channels, she added.
