Warm up
—- * * FOR NEW STUDENTS ** ————————————— ————
- What industry do you work in and what is your role?
- What are your responses in your role / position?
- Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
- How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
- What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
- How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
- What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?
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- Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
- Anything of interest happening?
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1. Hotel chains from Hilton—the world’s second largest hospitality group—to billionaire Robert Kuok’s Shangri-La are accelerating expansion plans across the Asia-Pacific region, betting on a post-pandemic recovery as countries gradually reopen to international travelers.
2. Among global players, Hilton is aggressively expanding across the region, with plans to more than double its footprint in Asia in the next few years. The company opened a record number of 100 new hotels across the region in 2021, expanding its presence by almost 20,000 rooms to over 120,000 rooms across 523 properties, including 400 hotels in Greater China, a key growth market. Having signed management contracts in recent months, it aims to open 760 new hotels—including Waldorf Astoria Sydney and Waldorf Astoria Tokyo—in the coming years to bring its total rooms across the region to more than 270,000.
3. “We’re seeing all segments rapidly recovering in the Asia Pacific,” Christopher Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton, said earlier this month during a visit to Singapore, where the company recently launched Hilton Singapore Orchard, its largest hotel in the region with more than 1,000 rooms.
With COVID restrictions still in many places around the world and advancements in the online meeting space (meta, zoom etc) Why do you think Hilton & others are expanding so agressively?
4. Located at the heart of Singapore’s most popular shopping strip, the former Mandarin Orchard hotel is owned by OUE, which is controlled by the family of Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady. Orchard Road is getting a makeover with several new properties coming up in just a few years time.
5. Singapore-based Pan Pacific Hotels Group—controlled by billionaire banker and real estate tycoon Wee Cho Yaw’s UOL Group—is opening the 347-room Pan Pacific Orchard in March next year. The group is adding more than 4,000 rooms from 18 new and refurbished properties in the next few years to its existing portfolio of almost 12,500 rooms across 39 owned and managed properties in Asia, Oceania, Europe and North America.
6. While the hotel industry is among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years as governments worldwide imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, Pan Pacific CEO Choe Peng Sum has said he is confident pent-up demand will drive the recovery going forward. “Travel will come back,” Choe said when UOL announced the group’s full-year 2021 results in February. “By the second half of 2022, we do foresee international travelers will come through. We will be well placed to receive these bookings.”
Tell me about your best and worst hotel experience.
7. With countries around the region relaxing Covid-19 restrictions, international hotel chains including French hospitality group Accor, Hong Kong-based Shangri-La and Bangkok-based Dusit Thani are gearing up for a post-pandemic recovery. Accor said it plans to open over 170 new hotels with more than 41,000 rooms across Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan and Maldives between now and 2026. Last year, it opened 14 new hotels with almost 3,000 rooms across Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.
8. “As restrictions continue to be eased worldwide, people are eager to travel and discover new experiences,” Garth Simmons, Accor CEO for Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, said in an emailed statement to Forbes Asia. “Since the beginning of 2022, we are seeing a strong rebound in booking across the Southeast Asia region. Markets with greater ease of entry such as Cambodia, Singapore, and the Maldives are generating confidence amongst both long-haul and short-haul markets, with loosened restrictions resulting in decreased costs of travel.”
With so many new hotels being built, apps such as AIR BNB and a potential permanent change in work culture is it possible to sustain this growth
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