GLOBAL LEADERS
Brett Butcher
Chief Executive Officer, Langham Hospitality Group This year will see the opening of a new Langham property in Gold Coast.
WHILE 2021 WAS not business as usual, we experienced some great wins, and we’ve got exciting plans for Australia and New Zealand. In Auckland, we have opened up the Pinnacle Tower in our long-established Cordis hotel with an additional 240 keys to make it the biggest hotel in New Zealand. With its beautiful views over the Waitematā Harbour, new 14th floor club lounge, many rooms with balconies and kitchens the pinnacle tower is certainly the height of hospitality in Auckland. We expect to establish ourselves as the pre-eminent
meeting and convention hotel in Auckland as well as a fully-fledged leisure destination with our multiple food and beverage outlets, award-winning spa, and the best club lounge experience in New Zealand with views of Rangitoto from some rooms to boot. Meanwhile in Australia, 2022 will see the opening of The Langham, Gold Coast - the first and largest development with direct beach access to be built in the last 30 years. Surfers Paradise will never be the same again! Langham Hospitality Group has had a long history of successful operations in Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. The opening of Gold Coast reinforces our footprint in the region, creating a platform from which to grow our brand presence with likeminded investors and developers in Australia and the Pacific Islands. Our first hotel in Southeast Asia also opened in the dynamic city of Jakarta in 2021. The Langham, Jakarta, which has been heralded as by far the best hotel in the city and this is reflected in its early performance. When it fully opens its restaurants in 2022 and travel opens up, I expect it will blossom into one of the best hotels in the region.
With our headquarters in Hong Kong, China continues to be a naturally strong opportunity for development. Our China presence is now 13 hotels with the addition of two new hotels in 2021 (Cordis and Hangzhou) in the high-tech hub and the Langham Place Changsha, which is surrounded by a Brett Butcher, Langham Hospitality Group water park and a snow park. Two new Cordis hotels are scheduled to open within the next 18 months in Shanghai and Hangzhou while The Langham Chengdu and Cordis, Xuzhou Centre will open later the same year. Langham Hospitality Group has been actively pushing forward in all its operational regions as we expect business sentiment to improve. In North America, The Langham, Boston, has reopened after a two-year renovation which has positioned this hotel in the heart of the city’s luxury set. It has also collaborated with the Boston Ballet which underlines the brand’s commitment to the fine arts and the local community. As a group, we are investing wisely in our infrastructure including areas like e-commerce, distribution technology, cloud-based operating platforms and underpinning these with excellent human resources automation which will equip us to manage the next stage of our operations. The Langham in We are bullish on the global recovery as COVID Melbourne is part of a retreats in 2022 and this is reflected in our conversations strong contingent of Australian hotels with owners and developers around the world. We expect to reflect this sentiment new deals with likeminded partners who are looking to add value to their asset with a globally successful owner operator. n
“As a group, we are investing wisely in our infrastructure.”
SNAPSHOT: LANGHAM HOSPITALITY GROUP Number of hotels and rooms (Globally): 26 hotels and 9,623 rooms Number of hotels and rooms (Asia-Pacific): 6 hotels and 2,510 rooms Number of hotels and rooms (Australasia): 3 hotels and 1,124 rooms Year first hotel opened: 1865 Year the company was founded: 2003 Brands in the organisation: 2 Head office location: Hong Kong
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