Question

in each region of the world we adapt to cultural norms and nuances, but we hold true to our standards and best practices that benefit our owners, team members, and guests. This impacts our approach to every aspect of our business—from the ways we train and engage our team members to our customer marketing campaigns and service delivery. Our strategic perspective is that a brand is a promise consistently delivered. Equally important, we strive to be culturally relevant. Cultural differences largely come to life in food and beverage and leisure amenities, such as spa offerings. For example, our eforea: spa at Hilton treatment menus are designed so that each hotel offers core elements that our guests expect, but the menus also give our owners in China flexibility to add treatments specific to their local market. Hilton Guangzhou Tianhe will feature spa treatments such as a foot massage and a variety of full-body massages inspired by traditional Chinese aromatherapy oils.

As a global brand with hotels in 78 countries, we invest a great deal of time and research into understanding the needs and expectations of travelers today, and we are prepared to meet these needs as they evolve over time. Research tells us that travelers have a great deal of trust for Hilton, particularly when traveling abroad. Because traveling abroad is a new experience for many of our guests from mainland China, our brand gives them confidence that the hotel experience will meet their needs so that they can focus on exploring a new destination.

From our more than two decades of experience operating in mainland China, we see two trends that differentiate the Chinese traveler. These trends are similar to the trends we have historically experienced with other rapidly expanding customer segments. First, we must provide our guests with familiar comforts, and make it a point to have team members fluent in Mandarin on staff at our hotels outside China. The recent global launch of the Hilton Huanying program is helping us achieve this goal.

Second, we recognize that most travelers from China are booking through government-approved travel agents and tour operators, rather than booking directly with a hotel or online. This affects how we communicate with our customers when they are considering lodging options. With more than 20 years of experience serving the China market, we have developed longstanding relationships with government travel agencies and tour operators. Hilton Worldwide opened its first international sales offices in Beijing and Shanghai in 2005, so we have teams in the market who really understand the travelers and communicate regularly with government travel agencies and tour operators. With Hilton Huanying, for example, we invited many of the tour operators to participate in the global launch events in San Francisco, Beijing, and Shanghai.

Our brand also has an aggressive marketing campaign in China, offers a Chinese version of our consumer site (www.hilton.com.cn) and recently launched a Chinese version of our global press site (www.hiltonglobalmediacenter.com.cn) as a resource for Chinese media

QUESTION

How do Hiltons china operations differ from its operations elsewhere?

Answer 1