Meliá Hotels International (MHI), which is opening six new hotels in China in the next three years, is speeding up its digital strategy to tap and seamlessly satisfy the needs of the increasing number of millennial bleisure travellers.
Rubén Casas, senior director of sales and marketing Asia Pacific, said: “We have taken a new approach to marketing and adapting to this segment of guests. For example, 83 per cent of all displays, social media and mobile will be managed through programmatic platforms in 2018.”
Meliá Shanghai Hongqiao
“This automation means we can better and more quickly tailor the message for the millennials in each market. Overall this is part of MHI’s digitisation programme where we will see better integration of our processes,” he said.
MHI also has a new Professionals Portal, which is being adapted to help travel agents, meeting and event planners, and corporate travel managers.
To cater to its bleisure guests who tend to be in the 25-35 age group and work in pharmaceuticals, direct sales, fast-moving consumer groups and manufacturing, MHI is taking a “more fun” approach to deliver more opportunities to mingle and partake in communal activities, Casas added.
MHI’s expansion in China focuses on urban hotels in the bleisure segment in first- and second-tier cities, and high-end resorts in tourist destinations. It will also introduce the INNSIDE brand to the country.
The 190-room Meliá Shanghai Hongqiao, targeted to open in March, is one of the most anticipated openings for the group as the flagship brand makes its entry into China’s business and financial hub, joining Gran Meliá Xi’an, a popular bleisure destination, and Meliá Ji’nan.
Other hotels in the pipeline are INNSIDE Zhengzhou (March 2017), Gran Meliá Zhengzhou (February 2018), Meliá Chongqing (February 2018), Meliá Zhengzhou (September 2018) and Meliá Tianjin (March 2020).
