THE “Chinese wallet” strategy has paid off for Dorsett Hospitality International, leveraging mainland China’s voracious travel appetite powered by its rising income levels.
“The ‘Chinese wallet’ strategy for us is simply pursuing Asian travellers, in particular the Chinese,” said Philip Schaetz, senior vice president sales & marketing of Dorsett Hospitality International.
“We are in a sweet spot as we focus on the midscale and value-led hotel segments. We believe there is room to grow this market, especially with Chinese travellers now being more ‘conscious’ when travelling.”
Schaetz added that Dorsett’s over 30 hotels in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the UK are “located in cities that are of choice with the Chinese traveller”, and that the group has also adapted its marketing strategies to the mainland Chinese’s changing preference from guided tours to independent travel.
“As most of (Chinese travellers’) research is done online, we try to influence them while they are in their dreaming stage to direct them to a destination where we are – done primarily in the social media world,” he added. We focus more on hard-selling destinations and attractions then soft-selling our hotels in that particular destination.”
In China, Dorsett currently has two hotels in the pipeline – the 200-key Dorsett Grand Zhuji (opening 4Q2014) and the 416-room Dorsett Zhongshan (opening 1Q2015).
