Brand diversity and rewards deemed key to realizing the group’s new vision and mission
Radisson Hotel Group is ready to expand 100 new hotels in Thailand by 2025 with its nine distinctive brands and through leveraging a strong network of its owner Jin Jiang International and affiliates to capitalise on a recovery of the tourism industry.
David Nguyen, Managing Director, Indochina and Strategic Partnerships, South East Asia & Pacific, Radisson Hotel Group, said the expansion in Thailand will cover not only key cities like Bangkok, Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya but also secondary cities like Chiang Mai, Khao Yai and Chiang Rai.
“The tourism sector in Thailand and other countries in Asia Pacific is recovering,” he said. “Some destinations like India have already passed pre-pandemic levels.”
Recently, the Bank of Thailand has forecasted 19 million foreign tourist arrivals in Thailand in 2023. “That is a good sign of recovery, and is over 60% compared to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
9 Diversified Brands
With 75 years of legacy and rich experiences throughout various markets worldwide, Radisson Hotel Group has a global footprint and relevant portfolio of brands. It has a lot of knowledge of navigating all sources in different markets from luxury, upper-upscale, upscale, upper mid-scale, mid-scale to economy markets.
“The diversity of our brands is key,” Mr Nguyen said. “We have nine distinctive brands that cater to the needs of every customer.” Our brands facilitate urban, resort, lifestyle and unique hotels. They do not overlay as they are very clearly defined and articulated.”
The nine brands include Radisson Collections, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Radisson, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Prizeotel and Radisson Individuals, a new brand launched in 2020.
He said Radisson Individuals would give hotel owners an opportunity to plug their existing hotels into Radisson’s large network and distribution platform Radissonhotels.com and leverage its loyalty programme–Radisson Rewards.
“During the COVID-19, many hotel owners were struggling and seeking ways to recover,” he said. “Radisson Individuals is an upscale soft brand that can assist to recover through greater flexibility, cost-effectiveness and minimal downtime.”
With a low investment cost, hotel owners don’t have to change the look and feel of the hotel. They can keep that as it is. It generally takes a fraction of the time to plug into Radisson Hotel Group’s system versus the need for a full renovation timeframe.
“We allow these owners to keep their hotels the way they look and operate the way they already have. They plug into our system and take the benefits of being part of the Radisson Hotel Group.”
In Thailand, it currently operates four hotels under three brands including Radisson Blu, Park Plaza and Radisson, all of which are in Bangkok, with two more in the pipeline which will open by 2024, comprising Park Inn by Radisson in Pattaya and Radisson Phuket Mai Khao Beach in Phuket.
“Our objective is to have all the hotel brands in the Thai market,” he said. “We see the opportunities for Radisson Individuals in Thailand to capture the growth of independent hotel owners joining us. Radisson Individuals is one of our key focus brands here.
He said the group is quite aggressive in the expansion in Thailand. It can penetrate the Thai market at scale very quickly, whether getting through M&A, strategic partnerships with various parties or leveraging its partner brands.
“In Asia Pacific, we will expand from the current over 400 hotels to 2,000 hotels by 2025,” he added.
Leveraging Jin Jiang’s Strong Network
Mr Nguyen said Radisson Hotel Group is ready to capture an inflow of foreign travellers to Thailand in particular, from China as it is the largest inbound market, making up 30% of total inbound travels in 2019.
“Our advantage is that we are part of Jin Jiang International, a Chinese tourism and hospitality company headquartered in Shanghai, China,” he said. “Once the borders open from China, we are confident of seeing a strong inflow of Chinese travellers returning to Thailand.”
Through its strong network in China and the ownership of Jin Jiang International, Radisson Hotel Group is in a leading position to bolster its presence in the China market.
Jin Jiang International is the second largest hotel group by number of rooms and number of hotels with more than 12,300 hotels and a total of more than 1,350,000 rooms in operation and under development.
“Together, our loyalty programs Radisson Rewards and Jin Jiang Club have a combined member base of more than 182 million,” he said.
The other advantage is that Radisson Hotel Group is the second largest hotel group in India, so its brands are well recognised among the Indian market. It is also the fastest growing hotel group in the Middle East, which both forms a large segment of Thailand’s inbound tourism arrivals.
“With Jin Jiang, we are looking at using not only our nine distinct brands but also partner brands which are Golden Tulip, Kyriad, Campanile, 7 Days and Metropolo for an aggressive expansion.”
The 7 Days brand is an economy brand which complements the Radisson Hotel Group’s brand architecture. At present, there are six 7 Days hotels in Thailand and we see an opportunity to grow this portfolio of economy hotels to capitalise on a coming recovery of travel and tourism in the market.
