Traditional Chinese welcome coming to Hilton hotels
Hilton is to roll out a global welcome program for Chinese travelers as it seeks to capture a larger part of China’s outbound tourism pie.
Hilton is to roll out a global welcome program for Chinese travelers as it seeks to capture a larger part of China’s outbound tourism pie.
A new “Hilton Huanying” package will debut this August in 30 properties around the world, including San Francisco, New York City, Vancouver, London, Tokyo and Sydney.
The aim of the scheme is to make the steadily-increasing number of Chinese road-warriors feel at home, offering what Hilton describes as “familiar comforts” on arrival, in the rooms, and at breakfast.
This includes providing a front desk team member fluent in Chinese, tea kettles and selection of Chinese teas available in rooms, dedicated Chinese television channels and a welcome letter written in Chinese.
Participating hotels will also roll out specific breakfast offerings such as congee (rice porridge) with condiments, fried rice or fried noodles, a dim sum selection and fried dough fritters (crullers), along with Chinese tea.
Guests will also be offered Chinese cutlery utensils such as chopsticks, Chinese spoons and a soy sauce dish.
With the number of Chinese outbound tourists expected to reach a whopping 65 million this year, it’s somewhat unsurprising hotels are pulling out all the stops to attract them.
In April this year, French chain Accor announced a similar welcome package for Chinese and Indian guests would be offered by its brands in Australia, which include Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, ibis and Motel 6, with additional food, entertainment and staff training to be rolled out to select properties.