Tibet plans five-star treatment to draw high-end tourism
By Andrew Yeh in Beijing
Published: February 24 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 24 2007 02:00
China's linking of Tibet to its transport network with the world's highest railway has already generated much controversy. Now the building of several top-class foreign hotels in Lhasa could well do the same.
The projects, typically structured as partnerships between a mainland or Hong Kong developer and foreign manager, promise to transform the hospitality industry in the sacred city, where even luxury travellers usually have to settle for modest accommodation.
"In Tibetan urban areas, the kind of development China's government has decided on is ultra-fast development," says Robbie Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University. "Five-star hotels are seen as highly symbolic of crystallising that development."
Tibet's towns and small cities are changing fast and the region's economic growth rate, at 13.4 per cent last year, has been one of the highest in China.
Tourism to Tibet is soaring with the help of the new railway line, which opened last July, running south from Qinghai province to Lhasa. Nearly 2.5m visitors landed in the region last year, up 40 per cent from 2005. More than 90 per cent of the tourists were domestic travellers.
Local tourism officials expect to host 3m to 4m this year and Prof Barnett predicts tourist visits to the region are on pace to reach 10m by 2020, a daunting number given Tibet's current population of 2.7m.
The inflow is attracting new investment. An expatriate-run company, TZG Partners, is investing about £51m (€76m, $100m) to launch a luxury train service, offering king-sized beds and butler service, either this year or next.
An expatriate American lawyer opened Lhasa's first high-end boutique hotel last year. It will soon be joined by bigger projects, including one to be managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide under its St Regis brand, and one from Singapore-based Banyan Tree Holdings. The developers of both projects have made land agreements and are now in the design phase.
Banyan Tree confirmed the project was going ahead but declined to provide further details.
In e-mails to the Financial Times, Starwood representatives said the St Regis was expected to cost at least $40m and have at least 169 rooms, including 50 villa-style suites and a presidential suite.
A Hong Kong-based businessman who is an investor in the project and asked not to be identified said the resort was set to open about the end of 2008. The cost of outfitting the resort would be 40 per cent higher than hotels elsewhere in China because of the cost of transporting furnishings and supplies, he said.
Best Western International executives have also said they are considering opening a hotel in Lhasa.
Western multinationals involved in previous projects in Tibet have drawn the ire of overseas activists opposed to Chinese rule of the region. InterContinental Hotels stopped managing a Holiday Inn in Lhasa in 1997 after years of boycotts and other protests.
Prof Barnett thinks that new hotel projects may have problems too. They are at risk of becoming involved in corruption and the forced relocation of residents, as well as the razing of the city's traditional architecture.
The St Regis investor insisted Lhasa officials had been very cautious about developing the city. Part of their strategy, he said, was to attract upper-class tourists so the city did not become a backpacker haven, like Kathmandu. He said the new projects would provide a boost to local service standards through recruitment of skilled staff from other provinces and the training of local workers. "We're not going to just build a hotel," he said. "We're going to start an industry."
William Zhao, of HVS International hospitality consultants, does not expect activist campaigns to have a big impact on international hoteliers managing projects in Lhasa. "They must go to do business and not end up being politicised," he said, adding that he believed Inter-Continental "definitely will return", probably with one of its more deluxe brands, such as Crowne Plaza.
Still, he said, "Some groups will not go in." He said Marriott International had held back over concerns of market immaturity. Marriott representatives in the US did not respond to requests for comment.
Hyatt Hotels held talks with Citic Group, the state-owned investment company, to manage a Park Hyatt in Lhasa but could not reach agreement.
"Seriously, it would be a difficult place to manage a hotel," said one Hyatt executive.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Maybe partnership could do most high succes of that structured.. in making partnership to other country...
Posted by: Juno888 | May 11, 2007 at 02:10 PM