Here are the top stories from the Daily Lodging Report newsletter in the past week. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here now.
25.08.2023 - 13:11 / skift.com / Asia Pacific / Paris Hilton / Peden Doma Bhutia / Alan Watts
Hilton has an ambitious goal to expand its portfolio in the Asia Pacific region from 627 hotels to 1,000 by 2025.
The hotel company’s president for Asia Pacific, Alan Watts, expressed confidence in achieving this target, citing the significant number of hotels already in the construction phase – around 500.
In fact, Watts said the target for 2025 could be revised up: a goal of 1,000 operational hotels and an additional 500 under construction that year.
For comparison, in March of this year, Marriott International announced the opening of its 1,000th hotel in Asia Pacific.
However, Watts said the true test for the hotel brand, said to be one of the fastest-growing hotel companies in the Asia Pacific region, lies in effectively managing the hotels and ensuring their ongoing success.
As Hilton gears up for the openings, it recognizes the importance of effective marketing to drive business.
Watts highlighted the shift towards personalized approaches in marketing: “Billboards have evolved into short YouTube ads,” he said.
Social media platforms have played a crucial role in expanding Hilton’s ecosystem and engaging with a broader range of individuals. The company now relies on algorithm-driven marketing techniques that ensure personalized experiences for each customer.
By leveraging data-driven insights, Hilton tailors its messaging to suit the preferred language and channel of its audience, effectively communicating through platforms like WeChat in China and WhatsApp in India with members of Hilton Honors, its loyalty program.
Watts also acknowledged the growing power of social media influencers and celebrity endorsements in the Asian market.
“These influencers not only provide validation and recommendations to their followers but also serve as aspirational figures,” he said.
In India, influencers wield significant sway, with Bollywood and cricket stars adding to the allure through their associations with various brands.
Actress Anna Kendrick has been the face of Hilton’s revamped rewards program. In addition to this, last year the hotel company also released a commercial featuring Paris Hilton, something she had never done before.
Hilton this year launched a marketing campaign showcasing their connected rooms feature, featuring Grammy-Award winner, Brandi Carlile.
This trend is evident as other major players in the industry, such as Qatar Airways and Accor, have roped in renowned Bollywood actresses Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif as brand ambassadors, respectively.
Even online travel companies in India, such as MakeMyTrip, have brand campaigns featuring actors Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.
And with Hilton set to open doors to a Waldorf Astoria in Jaipur, a celebrity wedding would be the
Here are the top stories from the Daily Lodging Report newsletter in the past week. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here now.
Ramsey, an accomplished professional with academic achievements from the University of Surrey, City University London, and Cornell University in New York, contributes a wealth of two decades’ worth of experience in the premium hospitality sector.
From today’s Daily Lodging Report newsletter: Nikkei Asia published an article on Hilton planning to expand its luxury offerings in Asia. Hilton will be bringing its Waldorf Astoria brand to Malaysia, Vietnam, India, and other countries for the first time as part of its plans to open 25 new luxury hotels in the Asia Pacific region over the next few years. That’s up from the 33 luxury hotels it currently runs in the Asia Pacific.
China’s Trip.com has struck two new partnerships, covering the UK and Asia Pacific, to give customers the opportunity to delay or spread out payments for their purchases.
Malaysia’s Capital A will not be merging its airlines, but will instead move all the carriers under one existing structure, similar to how British Airways, Iberia Airline, and Aer Lingus operate under the International Airlines Group umbrella, said CEO Tony Fernandes on Monday.
Travel platform Agoda has been pushing ahead with a series of new fintech partnerships, with its eye on Asia’s corporate travel recovery.
The Gulf region now has more than 170,000 hotel rooms under active development, which includes planning, final planning and under construction, according to research conducted at the end of September by STR, a hotel market intelligence and global benchmarking company. This active hotel development pipeline now equals 40 percent of the Gulf region’s existing hotel room inventory, a figure almost four times greater than the global average of 11 percent. The STR report estimates 135,560 existing rooms in Saudi Arabia with an active pipeline of 82,639 rooms, with total room inventory projected for 2030, at over 218,000 rooms. Similarly for the United Arab Emirates, the research currently tracks more than 202,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of 48,910 rooms, a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms by 2030. “Interestingly, Ras Al Khaimah, is second only to Dubai, with 5,076 rooms in its pipeline, almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah combined,” said Danielle Curtis, exhibition director of Arabian Travel Market. The research had been commissioned by Arabian Travel Market.
AirAsia Aviation Group on Friday announced a joint venture with Cambodia-based Sivilai Asia to launch a new low-cost carrier — AirAsia Cambodia.
Cendyn, a software company that offers customer relationship management, digital marketing, and operations tools to hotels, has hired a new chief executive.
Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.
Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.
Hyatt Hotels Corp., which enjoyed a blockbuster financial performance in 2022, forecasted Thursday continued success this year, especially in the first half. The company expects to benefit from growing consumer interest in its lifestyle, luxury, and resort properties, returning group reservations for its banquet halls, and an expanding room count.