Dusit International has dubbed 2013 as its “Year of Expansion”, with 19 hotels currently open and seven properties scheduled to follow in the next 12 months. Dusit has four hotel brands: Dusit Thani, dusitD2, Dusit Princess, and Dusit Devarana. It also operates Dusit Residences and its own signature Devarana Spa. Tom Otley talks to CEO Chanin Donavanik
How is Dusit doing this year?
For us, business is good across the whole of Asia, and in Thailand in particular. The country had political problems, those have gone away, and we have a strong MICE business which is returning. A lot of this MICE business is from the region – Asia is booming, and all countries show an increase in visitors, but we are perceived as good value partly because of those troubles. So Thailand is considered a cheap destination, but we have to convince visitors that we have more than that to offer.
You don’t want to be perceived as cheap.
No, and as more and more people come we have more opportunities to adjust perceptions. Also, when people look at Thailand they have to consider the different destinations within the country. Bangkok is good value, but Phuket is achieving $300 a night for a five-star price, so some parts have been doing quite well and others have yet to catch up.
Is that why you have different brands?
Well, Dusit Thani is our traditional brand with a large number of rooms and facilities, but in some locations we cannot do that, so we have different brands for different locations. When we go overseas we try to concentrate on the Dusit Thani brand. Dusit Thanis are a good size with good size meeting facilities.
So did the negative headlines on the problems in Thailand affect all sectors equally?
We get used to those headlines, and so does the customer. The business customer is not so affected because after the troubles people still have to come because foreign inwards investment is continuing. Usually after some trouble with the leisure market we see a big dip, but we know that it quickly goes back to normal.
It’s the MICE market that has been affected a lot because they need a few years to plan ahead, and a few big ones cancelled, but we have a lot of midsize conventions coming in. Singapore is expensive and there’s no more room, Hong Kong is expensive and there’s no room, and compare Bangkok to Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila - we have a lot to offer. We are the centre of south-east Asia – we are five hour flying time or less from 3.5 billion people, so it’s easy for people to come. Overall our MICE business is upwards of 20 per cent and we are hoping to grow that to 25 per cent this year. Dusit Thanis can support more than that.
Are you expanding in the Middle East?
We have been in the Middle East for over 10 years; I think we were the first Asian company in the region. We have slowed the expansion but we are doing well in those 10 hotels, and every few months we sign some more that will open so it will be a very strong market for us. We are not cutting our prices to expand, but we have a team based in Dubai and we can also look at Africa as well. Generally the Arab Spring boosted demand. It’s being driven by business demand but I think we will see more leisure traffic going in there.
We are also expanding in China and have just signed a joint venture with a local Chinese partner to build another 10 hotels in the next five years, with Shanghai, Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hainan all targeted – we already have hotels in Hainan and Qingyuan with its Dusit Thani and Dusit Devarana resort brands which will open soon.
What about your loyalty programmes?
We have two loyalty programmes – one is B2B and the other the Dusit Gold Card, which we are rolling out a revised version. It’s a recognition programme and it’s becoming more of a loyalty programme later this year.
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