"The Asia-Pacific region is now our the world's largest marketThis strength of the Asian market is due to the fact that the country's economy is very strong. The strength of the Asian market is due to the strong growth in demandThis is driven in particular by China, but also by the dynamism of a number of markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
"Thailand benefits in particular from a remarkable booming international tourismwhich is taking advantage of the political stability which has reigned in the country for the last two years. Vietnam is also an increasingly popular destination, also stimulated by the rise in the population's standard of living. As for Indonesia, the expansion of its tourism is being driven mainly by the strong growth in domestic demand, which is travelling more and more".
AccorHotels currently manages 761 hotels in the regionThis represents almost 154,000 rooms. And according to Patrick Basset, over the next three years the group plans to bring "some 50,000 additional bedrooms ".
The first country to benefit from this development will be France. Thailandwhere the group plans to add 18 new hotels by 2019. "It's already one of our biggest markets, with 69 establishments, more than 16,000 rooms and more than 2,000 employees. nine different brands in all market segments. Bangkok is one of the urban destinations where we have one of the strongest presences. The Thai capital has 27 hotels and 7,800 rooms under one or other of our brands", adds Patrick Basset.
In Bangkok alone, no fewer than eight new hotels, representing almost 2,000 rooms, will be added to existing capacity. "We are proud to announce the opening of our So by Sofitel in Samui, the third of its kind after Bangkok and Hua Hin. It will be an exceptional hotel, with very distinctive architecture", describes Patrick Basset.
"We are very optimistic for this country and estimate that the total number of tourists should reach over 35 million international visitors in 201732.8 million last year... That's incredible, when the country was welcoming just 20 million tourists a decade ago," enthuses the COO of AccorHotels. A large part of this growth is due to Chinese tourism which is now approaching ten million travellers in the kingdom.
Along with Thailand, Indonesia is AccorHotels' other major market in Southeast Asia. It is even the Group's largest market in terms of capacity in ASEAN, with 101 hotels representing almost 20,300 rooms. "We plan to add a further 18 hotels, representing more than 10,000 rooms, by 2019. We are also particularly pleased with our presence in Vietnam where we already have 24 hotels offering almost 5,000 rooms. We plan to add another 2,800 rooms. Finally, we are continuing to strengthen our position in MalaysiaWe were a little behind in terms of development. We plan to add a dozen hotels representing 3,600 rooms by 2019. This will enable us not only to strengthen our position in the Kuala Lumpur region, but also to finally have a presence in Penang and Johor Bahru," adds the COO.
Finally, AccorHotels is keeping a close eye on developments in the Burma. "Au MyanmarWe're seeing new opportunities with a number of projects to open hotels. While tourism is growing rapidly, with six million visitors last year, the infrastructure deficit is still a problem, as many places are still difficult to access," says Patrick Basset.
AccorHotels' strategy is toinvesting more and more in secondary destinationsThis has long been the case in Indonesia, but is now becoming the trend in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. "In Thailand, we are present in 13 destinations, including Chiang Rai, Sri Racha to the south of Pattaya, and Hua Hin", says the COO.
At the same time, AccorHotels also intends to launch its lifestyle brands in Thailand. "We want to launch the Mama Shelter concept in Bangkok around the Sukhumvit district. The brand Joe & Joe will also be appearing. It's a hotel for young people that breaks away from traditional concepts. We have a team of talented young people, not really from the hotel industry, who are working on this revolutionary concept", continues Patrick Basset.
