Source : Straits Times – 30 Sep 2009
Tour operator Commonwealth Travel Service Corporation (CTC) Holidays is aiming high for its fledgling hotel business with a plan to launch 20 hotels in Asia over the next five years.
Managing director Wee Hee Ling told The Straits Times yesterday, at the grand opening of CTC Holidays’ first @Gallery Suites boutique hotel in Shanghai, that plans were in place for a second @Gallery Suites in the province by April next year.
The local travel group is also set to follow this with another hotel with a similar concept in Taiwan by 2011.
Despite notching up more than $100 million in sales last year, CTC Holidays has been actively looking for new business opportunities in an increasingly saturated global tourism sector.
‘What we achieved last year was quite a remarkable performance in the travel agency business,’ said Ms Wee.
‘But we felt that in order to grow, we needed to move into other areas within tourism and the hotel business was just a natural step for us to take.’
The Singapore-based company recently invested US$5 million (S$7 million) to set up three subsidiaries in China as part of its diversification plans.
One of those wholly owned subsidiaries, Connections Hotel Management Company, operates @Gallery Suites in Shanghai.
The 39-room hotel located in the Xu Hui District – a former French quarter of Shanghai – is housed in a restored heritage building. Since its soft launch in March, the hotel has not only enjoyed near 90 per cent occupancy but also received rave reviews from the hospitality industry.
The boutique hotel – a blend of modern Chinese design and 1930s Shanghai art deco – is the first of 20 similar properties CTC Holidays is hoping to unveil in the major cities of China and in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.
The company’s second @Gallery Suites, to be located in the Jing An District, will provide 100 rooms to travellers in time for World Expo 2010, to be held in Shanghai next May.
Both properties are leased for a period of between 10 and 15 years, with options to extend.
Besides the hotel business, CTC Holidays is setting up an 8,000 sq m entertainment hub in Yu Yuan, a Ming Dynasty garden in Anren Jie and a must-see attraction in Shanghai, which now receives more than 100,000 visitors a day.
Ms Wee reported that travel bookings are picking up after dropping 30 per cent during the middle of the year mainly due to the H1N1 crisis.
‘We won’t better last year’s performance but we do hope to break even this year,’ she added.
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