FRHI Hotels &
Resorts has opened the first property of its new Neqta Hotels brand portfolio
in Shanghai’s Xuhui District.
The upper-midscale
brand aimed at Millennial Chinese travelers is the product of a joint venture
with Jiangsu Golden Land Group, a real estate developer that already owns the
Fairmont Nanjing in China. FRHI describes the Neqta brand as state of the art,
featuring such amenities as ergonomic guest rooms, rain showers, Bluetooth-enabled
LED televisions, free high-speed Wi-Fi and smart meeting areas for business
travelers.
“With domestic
business travel on the rise and market research indicating Chinese consumer
spending will more than double over the next five years, we see this as a
remarkable opportunity to further grow our footprint in China,” said JV
chairman Wayne Buckingham, FRHI senior vice president of operations for Asia/Pacific.
“Guided by extensive research and our own customer insights, we have designed a
contemporary hotel brand that will be highly attractive to both property
developers and the Chinese consumer, in particular the Millennial business
traveler in the 22-to-40 age demographic.”
According to GBTA's
most recent semiannual Business Travel Index Outlook, China represents about 20
percent of global business travel spending, and the country’s overall travel
spend is expected to grow 10.7 percent in 2016. GBTA further expects China will
become the world leader in business travel by mid-2016 and its business travel spend
will increase by 61 percent from $262 billion in 2014 to $420 billion in 2019.
The next Neqta
property is set to open in Nanjing later this year, and others are likely to
open within Golden Land’s mixed-use developments in China. Neqta Hotels will be
marketed apart from FRHI’s collection
of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel brands. AccorHotels recently
announced it would acquire FRHI for $840 million
cash and 46.7 million new Accor shares. An FRHI spokesperson told BTN the impending acquisition would not
impact FRHI’s joint venture with Golden Land.