Dusit seals deal with Japanese hotel group to boost tourism

“The group has already opened six offices overseas and the seventh one, Bangkok, will help build a marketing strategy and work with partners in the future,” said Stan Brown, executive vice president.

The group established the Bangkok sales office in December with the aim of enhancing overall inbound tourism positioning for visitors to Japan from Asean nations.

A huge portion – 80 per cent – of foreign tourists staying at Prince Hotels in 2013 was from Asian nations. About 22 per cent was from rapidly-growing Asean countries and 10 per cent from Thailand, which was behind China, South Korea and Hong Kong.

Since July 2013, the Japanese government has eased visa requirements and implemented a visa waiver programme for five countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand.

Visitors from Thailand to Japan have soared from about 260,000 in 2012 to 450,000 in 2013 and 650,000 in 2014 and are expected to continue growing this year and in the future. According to the Japanese tourism authority, Japan received 13 million arrivals in 2013. The authority targets 20 million in 2020 when Tokyo is set to host the Olympic Games.

The addition of the Bangkok office to the existing Asean office in Singapore would enable further initiatives on travel and tourism demand from Thai and other Southeast Asian visitors to Japan as well as from meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition travellers. The group has also opened an office in Taipei in Taiwan.

Prince Hotels is one of Japan’s leading hotel and leisure operators and the flagship of the Seibu Group, which comprises 55 companies with 22,000 employees. Seibu Holdings Inc was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year.

Under its three brands – The Prince, Grand Prince Hotel and Prince Hotel – the company operates 51 hotels in Japan and in key cities across the world. It also has 31 golf courses and nine ski resorts in Japan and other countries.

The company also operates franchises and other hotels, golf links and ski resorts in Hawaii, Taiwan, China and Malaysia.

David Shackleton, chief operating officer of Dusit International, said Japan is one of the major sources of inbound tourists. Thailand welcomed 1.5 million Japanese in 2013 and 1.3 million in 2014.

Dusit Group and Prince Group have formed a marketing alliance to allow both companies to leverage each other’s local expertise, as well as sales and marketing resources, to create opportunities for cross-selling, marketing and promotions.

This partnership demonstrates Dusit’s growing commitment to the Japanese market, which ranks among the top three inbound geographic source markets both for Thailand and Dusit Hotels and Resorts.

Dusit International is a subsidiary of Bangkok-based Dusit Thani and boasts over 65 years of history owning, developing and operating hotels, resorts, serviced apartments, spas and other facilities.

The group operates 24 hotels under the Dusit Thani, Dusit Devarana, dusitD2 and Dusit Princess brands. Next quarter, the group will open Dusit Thani Guam Resort, which will be the island’s tallest building. There are also plans to launch 24 hotels in the future.