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Year on year, Dusit Thani Dubai has enjoyed 449% growth in revenue from the Chinese market, which director sales and marketing, Leon Salinel attributes to their focus on providing for this particular market’s unique requirements.
“Few Mainland Chinese are confident in their English language abilities”, commented Salinel, “so we have incorporated several Chinese speakers into our manning guide. Key guest contact positions such as telephone operators, receptionist, concierge, housekeeping and of course a Chinese sales executive and a Chinese chef have all joined the team at the Dusit Thani Dubai in recent months”.
A continuing important source market, Dusit Thani Dubai reports a year to date growth of 4,187 room nights from China compared to the same period last year and a revenue growth of more than one million Dirhams.
“Not only do we have Chinese speakers in the hotel, we are also developing a new loyalty programme specifically targeting our Chinese guests” continued Salinel.
Whilst some may argue that Dusit International is a well known hotel brand throughout Asia, with sales offices throughout the region, and www.dusit.com is offered in Mandarin, thus encouraging Chinese guests to choose a recognised name when selecting their hotel overseas, Salinel believes the Dusit Thani Dubai focus on these guests is to be attributed for the increasing numbers here in Dubai.
“Chinese are great guests to have, with anything from 5 – 30 rooms included in the group, staying for a minimum of three nights, and not at the very low rates often attributed to this market” continued Salinel.
The groups, which are handled by local tour operators, enjoy visiting the key Dubai landmarks such as Burj Khalifa and The Dubai Mall. Asian guests are rarely looking for a beach vacation, making the city location of Dusit Thani Dubai ideal.
The hotel is also developing a special room service menu for Chinese guests, with pictures and numbers to accompany the descriptions, enabling guests to order by number to ensure all service staff completely understand their requirements.
Recognising the value of face-to-face contact in Asian markets particularly, Dusit Thani Dubai will be joining the DTCM trade show in China in October, visiting cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
Other markets of particular interest to Dusit Thani Dubai include India, where Salinel recently visited on another sales trip in September.
“Figures are already promising for this market with hotel guests from India representing more than 1500 room nights – double the number of guests for the same period last year” commented Salinel.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
