Hyatt Hotels Co. wants to win over the hearts of Chinese travelers may it be in the luxury services, full service, select service or all-inclusive service, Stephen Ho, president of Greater China Global Operations, told Forbes in an exclusive interview.
The executive highlighted that Chinese families are now willing and capable to spend on luxury accommodations compared to ten years ago. In addition, there is a rapidly growing segment of the population who has the power to spend on five-star and more high-end hotel accommodations. To address this, Ho said it is important for Hyatt to establish an expanded brand presence and variety of new choices to meet Chinese consumers' taste.
Ho shared that Hyatt is planning to double the number of its hotels in China within the next four years. The multinational hospitality company is targeting to set up 60 hotels and 22,000 more rooms, the executive added. This number could already account to as much as one-third of Hyatt Hotels Co. worldwide operations.
By 2019, the company will open the Park Hyatt Shenzhen in 2019 on top of the South Tower of the Ping'A Financial Center, Ho told Forbes. This will be the newest addition to the seven hotel brands that are already operating in Greater China which include Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House.
Forbes further underlined that travel and tourism revenue in the country is currently expanding at a pace double the rate of the country's GDP. The publication also highlighted that China's travel industry is predicted to get as big as that of Germany or the United Kingdom. By 2025, there could, in fact, be over 220 Chinese cities with more than 1 million people as compared to the United States with only 10 cities with a comparable size of a population.
If Hyatt's plan all goes well, it could also be strategically positioned ahead of the competition when China becomes the world's number one tourist destination by 2030. A group of experts at Euromonitor International predicted that China will surpass France as the top tourist destination in the world. By then, Hyatt is set to capture not just the growing domestic Chinese travelers but is very well positioned to capture international travelers as well.
In October, Hyatt reported a strong 7.6 net rooms growth in the three months ended on Sept 30. The earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in Hyatt's operations in Southeast Asia, Greater China, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and Micronesia grew 15.9 percent.
Overall Hyatt reported net income of $237 million compared to $18 million in the same period of 2017.
