The Louvre Hotels group and Jin Jiang, one of the major players in Chinese tourism with more than 700 establishments, including nearly 600 under the JinJiang Inns banner, have joined forces to offer French and Chinese business travellers visiting both countries familiar features in their hotels. 15 business establishments in China and the same number in France will soon display a sign with the two Campanile-JinJiang Inns names and will offer telephone assistance and signage in both languages. Cultural customs will also be respected, with green tea available in the rooms and ravioli on the breakfast buffets in the Campanile hotels, and French products in the JinJiang Inns.
For the time being, this partnership concerns Campanile hotels in the five French cities most visited by Chinese tourists - Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Nice - and Jin Jiang Inns in the three Chinese cities most popular with French tourists - Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an. The agreement also provides for the sharing of distribution channels, with the possibility of booking these establishments on the websites of both groups.
The alliance between Europe's second-largest hotel group and China's leading hotel chain has met with widespread approval. That of Frédéric Lefebvre, the French Secretary of State for Tourism, who was present at the official signing ceremony, and who sees in this partnership a means of "improving the welcome for Chinese tourists" and supporting the growth of this clientele. But also those of the management teams of the two groups. JinJiang will be taking its first steps outside China, one of its stated objectives, and for Louvre Hotels it will be an opportunity to break into the Chinese market, while opening up prospects for the top-of-the-range Golden Tulip brand. Could this be the start of a wider movement? Pierre-Frédéric Roulot, Chairman of the Louvre Hotels Group, has set himself the target of extending this partnership to 50 or even 75 hotels by the end of 2012, depending on the results of the test.
