Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong is delighted to present the Art Affair experience, providing guests with an array of privileges and access during Art Central Hong Kong and Art Basel Hong Kong, which take place in late March 2018.
International hotel management company Rosewood Hotel Group has strengthened its business development team with the appointment of Noel Merainer as vice president – development, Asia Pacific to lead the group's expansion in the region for its four distinct brands, including ultra-luxury Rosewood® Hotels & Resorts, deluxe New World™ Hotels & Resorts, neighbourhood lifestyle penta™ hotels, and the newly launched business and lifestyle hotel brand KHOS™.
Benoit Mouclier has been appointed as the Director of Sales and Marketing for the hotel. He will be supervising the activities of the Sales and Marketing team. Prior to his appointment, Benoit was most recently Director of Sales at the Courtyard by Marriott Hong Kong.
Le Méridien Cyberport is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Pierre-Antoine Penicaud as the new General Manager whilst Benoit Mouclier as the new Director of Sales & Marketing. Pierre will be in charge of the 170 roomed stylish hotel boasting 5 restaurants and bar, located in Cyberport, in the southwest of Hong Kong Island.
The majority of Russian tourists are highly satisfied with Hong Kong's upmarket hotels, according to the findings of a recent study by Dr Denis Tolkach and Dr Tony Tse of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). A consideration of more than a thousand online reviews written by Russian guests revealed a particular appreciation for Hong Kong's spectacular views and attentive and friendly hotel staff. While there are a few negative issues that hotels may wish to focus on improving, the findings present an overall positive picture.
Wharf Hotels announces the opening of The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel, as the group's new flagship Niccolo property and the latest addition to the luxury contemporary chic collection by Wharf Hotels. The Murray will open its facilities, restaurants and bars progressively from today.
HONG KONG -- St. Regis Hotels & Resorts today announced a collaboration with China Resources Property which is slated to bring the legendary St. Regis brand to Hong Kong by early 2019. Marriott International has nine properties in Hong Kong, but this will be the first property for the St. Regis brand in the city.
Wharf Hotels is pleased to announce the promotion of Dalip Singh from Hotel Manager to General Manager for Marco Polo Hotels – Hong Kong. Reporting to the group’s Vice President Operations, Singh will be in charge of the very popular three Hong Kong Hotels located on prestigious Canton Road: Marco Polo Hongkong, Prince and Gateway.
Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR) today announced the appointment of Bruce Ryde as Asia-Pacific Vice-President for Luxury Brands and Brand Marketing. Bruce will be based in the company’s Asia-Pacific Continent office in Hong Kong.
Tang"s Living Group, a vibrant young hospitality group with a growing range of hotel brands and clubhouse, is bringing its second Hotel Brand – Hotel Ease to the city, slated to open on 1 November 2017.
The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University received a donation of HK$1.08 million from Zhejiang Drore Technology Co., Ltd. (Drore) for the establishment of the "Drore Scholarship" in support of the SHTM's efforts in advancing hospitality and tourism education.
iclub is a select-service hotel brand under the management of Regal Hotels International. To further expand its business in Hong Kong, it launched its fourth Hong Kong hotel in To Kwa Wan. In order to celebrate this momentous event, iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel held a grand opening ceremony earlier and invited celebrities and KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to attend. It not only showcased the world-class services and cutting-edge facilities of iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel, but also echoed its concept – Interconnected, In Vogue and Innovative.
Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the world’s largest and most dynamic hotel groups, today announced the appointment of Katerina Giannouka as president, Asia Pacific. She will be based in Singapore, at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s Asia Pacific headquarters, and join no later than December 4, 2017. She will report directly to John Kidd, chief executive officer and chief operating officer, Carlson Hotels Inc.
Ms Vanessa Kong has been appointed as Director of Sales & Marketing for Marco Polo Hotels – Hong Kong.
Endowed by the Victoria Park Hotels Limited, Professor Haiyan Song, Associate Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was conferred the title Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Professor in International Tourism at the Third Inauguration of Endowed Professorships held at the University on 5 September 2017.
The reverberation from the sharp declines in mainland China visitor arrivals post-2014 echoed into the first quarter of 2016, negatively impacting hotel markets across the region, especially in Hong Kong and Macau. Given that both cities are less than an hour away from mainland China, they suffered from the new restrictions placed on Chinese citizens. For Hong Kong, this included a limit to one visit per week from neighbouring Shenzhen, and for Macau, a stricter control over gaming activities to reduce corruption. However, the market appears to have bottomed out and growth is beginning to stabilize.Hong KongA series of political incidents during 2014 to 2015 caused a slump in Chinese tourist arrivals, leading to a difficult recovery period for the tourism industry, which, until then, had all its eggs in one basket. However, since the first quarter of 2016, Hong Kong is gradually picking up its visitor arrivals pace, albeit not at the levels witnessed in 2014. In the second quarter of 2017, total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong registered 13.6 million, a 1% year-on-year (YoY) increase. The top six feeder markets demonstrated positive YoY changes, except Taiwan with a YoY decline of 1.1%.Mainland China continues to be the largest feeder market recording 10 million arrivals with a 0.8% increase compared with the same period last year. This represents a 74.2% overall share of visitor arrivals. An emerging trend among Chinese travellers can be seen through their travel choices which, while fuelling growth, may also be a potential limitation. Given increasing disposable income levels and a desire for more diverse travel experiences, mainland Chinese are becoming more adventurous with their travel choices. Over the past years, this directly benefited the growth of their arrivals in rival destinations such as Japan and South Korea and markets further afield, after having visited the more familiar environment of Hong Kong. With the growth of infrastructure in second- and third-tier cities and better high-speed rail links in mainland China, Hong Kong is hosting new groups of Chinese travellers from these areas. Therefore, the number of travellers coming from mainland China is stabilizing, however not reaching back to the peak in 2014 with 12 million travellers.Among the major feeder markets, the Philippines registered the highest YoY increase of 15.8% with 250,000 arrivals, a 34,000 increase from the same period last year. Accounted for 1.9% and 2.5% of the market share, Japan and South Korea both recorded a remarkable 11.9% and 7.0% YoY increase, respectively, with 263,000 and 337,000 arrivals. Meanwhile, USA recorded a positive but relatively lower increase as well through a 1.3% YoY with 316,000 arrivals. However contrary to the trend seen, India faced a drastic 17.3% YoY drop with a total of 27,000 decrease of travellers to 129,000. A major reason for this decline can be explained by the visa restriction proposed by the Hong Kong immigration authorities, making it difficult for Indians to visit without reviews and approvals. Originally intended to prevent an abuse of the asylum system, this proposal had since discouraged a great number of Indian tourists and businessmen from coming to Hong Kong. Additionally, Indian banknotes demonetisation implemented in November 2016 to reduce corruption had trimmed many Indian travellers' budgets. Overall, after years of recovering, the market is slowly catching up at a steady pace; demonstrating a rebound from the bottom.
Margaret Yeung has been appointed VP of brand management and communications for Rosewood Hotel Group to spearhead the group’s overall strategic branding and communications, further strengthen brand awareness and market positioning, and continue development of the individual brands. Yeung brings more than 20 years of branding, marketing and strategy experience in the luxury, media, and digital arenas combining both client and agency advisory roles to Rosewood Hotel Group. Most recently, she was partner and director of Kalli Strategic Consulting for seven years providing strategic advisory, branding and marketing services for a diverse range of sectors across three continents, including Europe, Asia and North America. Her practice sectors included luxury product brands, private banking, classical musical and fine art, C-suite private groups, and more.
STR's preliminary July 2017 data for hotels in Hong Kong indicates strong performance growth. Based on daily data from July, Hong Kong reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
In line with the regional strategy to boost its client service offering, the group has promoted Corey Hamabata to Senior Vice President, Investment Sales. Originally based in Singapore, Mr Hamabata will relocate to Hong Kong in August. He has been involved in a number of significant mandates across the region and will be leading the team in Hong Kong while supporting efforts in the Pearl River Delta and Greater China.
Dorsett Hospitality International appoints Anita Chan, General Manager of Dorsett Wanchai, Hong Kong, Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong and Dorsett Mongkok, Hong Kong with an additional role as Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing. In this additional role, Anita will form part of the Dorsett Hospitality International’s Corporate Executive Committee Team Member and will play a strategic focus on Brand Marketing, Customer Relationship Management and Channel Marketing in Website Management. She will be responsible for leading and developing customer loyalties strategies through enhancing the group’s brand awareness both internally and externally, setting up Brand Marketing and Channel Distribution infrastructure, implementing, executing and monitoring systems, standards and process for all Dorsett Hospitality International’s properties across all regions to follow and comply with. Anita joined Dorsett Hospitality International since March 2005 as General Manager for Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong and Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong. She was instrumental in the rebranding project of Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong to Dorsett Wanchai in October 2016 with a refreshing face and standards that are reflective of the Dorsett brand DNA of: contemporary, playful and urban.