What is coming up?
Firstly, there are a lot of international hotels under development. Starwood will soon have 10 hotels in Shanghai, InterContinental Hotels Group will have 20 including three under the InterContinental brand and nine under Crowne Plaza. Marriott will open the 720-room Marriott Shanghai City Center Hotel near Nanjing Road and Peoples’ Park in July. The Shanghai Disney Resort broke ground in April and will open in five years. It will be located between Pudong Airport and downtown. There will be the theme park, Shanghai Disneyland and two themed hotels.
Any further updates on the government’s plans for the Hongqiao business district?
Hongqiao Airport recently opened for international flights to and from major cities in North Asia. Construction has begun on what will be Shanghai’s biggest exhibition facility and the supporting infrastructure, which will be completed in 2012 or 2013.
You can’t just build a convention and exhibition facility; there must also be transportation, F&B and other supporting services as well. It will be a transportation hub, with a station connecting major Chinese cities by high-speed rail as well as to the metro lines within the city of Shanghai. Hongqiao will be a self-contained business district that will be easy for international visitors to access. There are already several international hotels in this area such as Sheraton, Millennium and Marriott. Hilton just opened a 675-room hotel within 15 minutes of Hongqiao Airport.
What else is new?
The contract to host the Shanghai Formula 1 Grand Prix was recently renewed for 10 years, which is an attractive event for many incentive groups. The first Shanghai Business Events Week was held from April 11 to 15. This started with the First China (Shanghai) International Meetings & Conferences Forum. Industry professionals from associations like ICCA, SITE, MPI and CMA attended and shared their knowledge. The event was jointly organised by SMTA and the Hangzhou Tourism Commission, and was supported by the ICCA China Committee (Mainland) as a pre-event leading up to the 52nd ICCA Congress, which will be held in Shanghai in 2013.
Patrick Chen is the deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration