Hilton Shanghai Will Leave Huashan Road Location Next Year
Xu Wei
DATE:  Sep 05 2017
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Hilton Shanghai Will Leave Huashan Road Location Next Year Hilton Shanghai Will Leave Huashan Road Location Next Year

(Yicai Global) Sept. 5 -- The Hilton Shanghai, which is on Huashan Road, said on its website recently that it will leave the location on January 1 next year. The move may trigger a hotel market reshuffle in the city, The Paper reported yesterday.

The Hua Ting Hotel & Towers, which opened in November 1986, was the first hotel managed by a foreign brand in Shanghai. It signed a 10-year entrusted management contract with Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, who left the facility last year. Sheraton's withdrawal was very normal, experts said.

China's hotel industry was underdeveloped 30 years ago. The introduction of high-end hotel management brands contributed to its development and attracted foreign guests. Over the past three decades, the industry in China has matured and has been recognized by international organizations.

Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels (Group) Co. took fifth, the highest among its Chinese peers, in the Hotels 325 ranking the US's HOTELS Magazine published last year. BTG Hotels Group Co. [SHA:600258] rose to eighth place after its merger with Chinese economy hotel group Homeinns Co. [NASDAQ:HMIN]. Huazhu Hotels Group Ltd. [NASDAQ:HTHT] climbed to ninth. An increasing number of Chinese hotel firms are participating in international hotel management and exporting their services.

Property owners and hotel managers will have different expectations about hotels and the industry as its development accelerates, said Liu Deyan, a professor at Shanghai Normal University's tourism college. A hotel deciding to leave a location is an ordinary event, Liu said.

Compared with 30 years ago, tourism trends affecting the Chinese hotel market have undergone major changes. Chinese took 4.4 billion domestic trips last year while 138 million inbound tourists, 59.27 million of whom stayed overnight, traveled to China, the National Tourism Administration website shows.

Most guests at Chinese brands' hotels came from overseas 30 years ago. Now, most of their guests are Chinese travelers, and this change has had a direct impact on the industry's development, said He Jianmin, director of tourism department at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. The Shanghai Disneyland Park and other tourism industry players have started focusing on providing intimate personalized services for Chinese when transforming and developing hotels.

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Keywords:   Hilton,HOTEL,US