How come it has taken so long for Shangri-La to open its first hotel in Japan?
As you know, this is not an easy market to enter. Location is very important, as is finding the right partner, unless you are prepared to buy the land and building. It has taken us a long time to do that. But we have never neglected Japan. We have had an outbound sales office in Japan for more than 10 years. Is the Shangri-La brand well-known among Japanese travelers? Yes, it is. We have a customer recognition program which is by invitation only. Of the approximately 1.3 million members, 10% are based in Japan. Japanese travel within Asia a lot and many have been to our hotels, in particular, Singapore, and our resorts in Malaysia. With the economic downturn, this isn’t exactly the best time for a 5-star hotel to be opening in Japan. The whole industry is going through a painful business cycle but once we weather the crisis, I think we will do well. Our strategy is to focus on the domestic market. This was our strategy even before the economic downturn. I’d say at least 60% of our clie
