Accor’s Issenberg glued to China watch
Michael Issenberg, chairman and chief operating officer of Accor Asia Pacific, told the Web in Travel event in Singapore last week that he had “given up predicting the futureâ€.
Despite that, there was one thing he was sure of: Accor needed to build its brands and develop its skill sets in China.
“I visit China almost every month and have been doing so for about eight years,†he said.
“I always visit the retail shops because I like to see what people are wearing, how they are spending their money.
“Even in the second tier cities you can see the difference, how fast things are changing.â€
Issenberg said he expected travel from China to grow by 13-15 percent in a short space of time.
“For Accor we need to build our brand within China so that people recognise it when they travel outside China,” he said.
“This will mean Chinese language, Chinese food and Chinese television in our hotels outside China.â€
Issenberg said a game changer for the hotel business would be supersonic transport.
“If you could travel from Asia to Paris in two hours, have a meeting and then fly back in two hours, you wouldn’t need a hotel for the night. That would be a game changer,†he said.
Ian Jarrett
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