“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall
meet,” Rudyard Kipling wrote more than a hundred and twenty years ago and it
seems that, despite all globalization efforts, he may be right. At least if you
look at the recent moves by international hotel groups such as Intercontinental
to introduce China-centric hotel brands.
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| IHG's Hualuxe... designed to offer a traditional experience to Chinese travelers |
At the recent ANZPHIC conference in Sydney this point was
hotly discussed and it seems to me that both sides have a point. On the pro
side, the arguments include that Chinese travelers crave cultural familiarity in
everything from food to design and service. Given that
China is
expected to overtake Japan by 2013 as Asia's
largest travel market and is set to become the
world’s
largest business travel market, after the US, by 2015, it seems a wise
move to tap into this coming wave of travelers with a brand tailored exactly to
their needs. And these needs, apparently, include anything from daily tai chi
sessions, complimentary head and shoulder massages, a 24-hour congee menu, to
specifically grand entrances and tea rooms rather than boozy sports bars.
But does this craving for familiarity really warrant a
completely different brand? KP Ho, Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings
begged to differ during an interview session at ANZPHIC. He warned of the compartmentalisation
of travel if hotels are specifically targeted at certain nationalities and I
think he may have a valid point. The craving for familiarity is certainly not a
Chinese monopoly but something that is woven deeply into our social fabric, no
matter what nationality you are. And so the question is: do we really want to
have hotel brands that only cater for Chinese, only for Russians, only for
Germans, etc?
But this is of course a numbers game, and at least for now,
China is the country with the most of everything: people, growth and travelers.
This poses a natural attraction for anyone keen to grow their business and as a
growing travel segment the temptation is to pander to them and them alone.
If we talk about ethnic segments with economies of scale however,
what about religious groups? A new
study shows that Muslim tourists globally represent a major niche market
worth US$126.1 billion in 2011 which is set to grow to US$192 billion by 2020. The
travel industry is already responding to this trend by providing Halal foods,
prayer rooms and spas adapted to religious requirements. But would it also be
worth considering building hotels that are built to strict Muslim standards?
Incidentally, China has a sizeable Muslim population of around 20 million, or
1.5% of the total population, which just highlights how complex the whole issue
of exclusively catering for individual groups’ demands can get.
But there are already examples out there where providing a
familiar experience is handled in a very subtle way. Accor has been a champion
of taking the French way of life to the world for a long time. Whether you
check into a Pullman Hotel in Bangkok or a Sofitel in New York, you will be
greeted with a warm “Bonjour” and can enjoy a croissant for breakfast that
would do any boulanger back in Paris
proud. That’s why Accor hotels tend to attract a lot of travelers from France, which
in turn validates the whole French experience, but without alienating non-French
guests.
But let’s get back to Banyan Tree’s KP Ho: his response to
his peers’ push to open China-centric brands was that cultural preferences are
much better served through electronic means such as CRM and PMS, and I have to
say that I wholeheartedly agree.
The personalisation tools offered through intelligently integrating
with the hotel’s PMS system which holds the vital customer data offer many more
opportunities to provide an atmosphere that is not only tailored to collective
ethnic preferences, but to a guest’s individual tastes, without sacrificing or
alienating others’.
The way the China-centric brands tailor their hotels to make
them more familiar to the Chinese traveler seems to me not very dramatic: grand
entrance ways, the above mentioned tai chi and wooden floors instead of carpet,
as one panelist at the Sydney conference mentioned doesn’t sound particularly
Chinese to me. Plus, decent congee has been on the menu in all better hotels in
the region for years.
But a capable PMS and CRM system that is intelligently
linked to in-room facilities can achieve a much more familiar atmosphere. Being
greeted on the in-room TV in your preferred language upon entering the room,
saving TV channel preferences in the system to have your personalised line-up
ready whenever you check-in, or even tailoring the in-room dining menu to
reflect your favourite choices are all means by which a hotel can make their
guests feel more welcome and at home.
Just make sure you get it right: there’s nothing more
annoying than being greeted in the wrong language or by the wrong name,
something that happens to me depressingly often. Being addressed as “Mr” Anke
Gill, instead of “Ms” smacks of laziness (I guess you’ll have a 50% chance of
getting it right). But being addressed as “Gill” instead of “Anke” by the
in-room entertainment system is pretty irritating when Google can give you a
hint in less than 30 seconds. I guess the lesson here is that the technology is
only as good as the people operating it and their respective understanding of target
demographics.
