Asia is the most dynamic market for luxury products and services and is the next target for palace hotels under the brand of Dorchester Collection, company chief executive Christopher Cowdray told AFP in an interview about strategy.
PARIS – “We have now nine hotels, they are all iconic. We own all of them except the Richemond (in Geneva). The aim is to have 15 hotels by 2015, it’s ambitious but that’s the plan,” explained Christopher Cowdray, CEO of the Dorchester Collection to AFP. The Dorchester Collection is owned by the Brunei Investment agency, the sovereign wealth fund of Brunei. The origins of the Dorchester Collection lie in the purchase of the Dorchester hotel by the Sultan of Brunei back to 1986.
Cowdray ran through a list of cities which the group targets as suitable for its palace hotels, widely regarded in the world of luxury hotels as being in a class of their own. “We’re looking at key cities in Europe, in the Far East and in America,” Cowdray said.
“To be precise, one in each of these cities, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney. We’re also looking at the Middle East as well, Dubai, Doha and probably Abu Dhabi, but also in New York or Washington. It depends where the opportunities arrive. It’s not a science, it’s all about opportunity.“
Cowdray, a 56-year-old Zimbabwean who ran the Dorchester hotel in London before becoming head of the London-based Dorchester Collection in 2007, said that several projects were under review and it was hoped that an announcement could be made by the end of the year.
The focus was on Asia because that was where the future development of the business lay, and with the Chinese in particular because “the Chinese will be the biggest travel group in the future. They’re looking for luxury and the very wealthy are discerning, they know what true luxury is.”
In Paris, the Chinese were still hesitant to stay in palace hotels but growth of the world market for luxury products and services was already being driven largely by demand from the Chinese.
In 2015 they would represent the biggest group of customers for luxury industries, whether they spent their money within China or as tourists abroad, a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group suggests.
The Dorchester Collection might look at building a hotel in Shanghai because “in Shanghai, it’s going to be very difficult to find a hotel that fits our standards,” Cowdray said.
The Dorchester Collection has in its portfolio the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1995, the Meurice and Plaza Athenee hotels in Paris in 1997, the Principe di Savoia in Milan in 2003, the Bel-Air in Los Angeles in 2008, Coworth Park, Ascot, England in 2010 and with a management contract for the Richemond in Geneva in 2011. The latest addition was the 45 Park Lane in London last year.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
