Future of Tourism
Let me explain my profile. I'm Ayako Nakai associate professor of Toyo University. In 2012, I got the master of arts TESOL at Institute of Education, UCL, University College London. I started to teach at Faculty of International Tourism Management, Toyo University in April 2018.
I teach Hospitality English, Basic Writing, Applied Reading and Tourism Project. I got Ph.D. degree in 2019 at Institute of Education, Waseda University. Before the lecture can I explain how to see the script? Please click the following button to see the script today. I will talk about the future of tourism five-star hotel strategies of attracting customers during pandemic. Since early 2020 new coronavirus has affected all over the world more than 27,486, 960 cases have been confirmed globally and the death toll as writing has exceeded 894,983 according to World Health Organization 2020. Let me talk about visitors’ arrivals to Japan JNTO 2020 in June 2019 the number of foreign tourists 2, 880,041 June 2020 the number foreign tourists only 2,565 minus 99.9 percent.
It means the number of foreign tourists who visited japan drastically dropped down. Today’s theme is strategies of five-star hotels for attracting customers. What kind of strategies do luxurious five-star hotels adopt to attract customers during the pandemic? Luxurious hotels cannot offer extreme discount of the accommodation fee to keep the brand image. Various interesting strategies have been implemented by the hotels instead of joining the price war like business hotels. What is five-star hotel? Every year Forbes Travel Guide announced award winners rating stars. Forbes Travel Guide has the only independent global rating system for luxurious hotels, restaurants and spas. For example, you can see the picture. The peninsula Tokyo has five stars.
Today I will talk about the following five-star hotels The Peninsula Tokyo, Shangri-La Tokyo,Mandarin Oriental Tokyo, The Palace Hotel Tokyo and The Ritz Carlton Tokyo. The Peninsula Tokyo is located next to Hibiya Station and Ginza station. You can see fantastic view of Imperial Palace from the window and also you can enjoy gorgeous afternoon tea in the lobby if you are lucky, you might be able to see wedding ceremony in the lobby. Shangri-La Tokyo is located adjacent to Tokyo station. You can see different trains from your room. It is such an interesting view, I have to say, you can also enjoy night view of Tokyo if you are hungry, you can visit a gorgeous restaurant, Piacere, the signature of dish of Shangri-La Tokyo is egg benedict. you must try it. Mandarin Oriental Tokyo which belongs to
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group was opened in 2005. Mandarin Oriental Tokyo features superb view of the city occupies floors between 30 and 36 of the Nihonbasi Mitsui Tower. It is within 11 minutes’ walk from Tokyo station. The hotel has been refurbished within modern and stylish since 2019. Palace hotel Tokyo which opened in 2012 is located in front of Imperial Palace. Some of the rooms have beautiful balconies overlooking Wadakura Park. It is managed by Palace Hotel co. ltd.
a Japanese company. The U.S. previous president Donald Trump stayed in the hotel in 2019. In 2020, for the first time Ritz Carlton Tokyo was awarded five stars by Forbes travel Guide. The hotel opened in 2007 and occupies the top nine floors of the 53 story Tokyo Midtown building in Roppongi a city known for its sleepless night life. A 100 year old tea house is preserved in Japanese-style restaurant, Keyaki where guests can enjoy private dinner. Staycation is relatively new term for alternative to long distance travel that first emerged in the United States in 2008 at that time the country was experiencing an economic downturn and the gas prices were incredibly high. Staycation became a trendy
word in Tokyo during the summer of 2020 due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Ritz Carlton Tokyo, The Peninsula Tokyo and The Mandarin Oriental Tokyo adopted the staycation plan to attract guests. Five-star hotels use different strategies. One of the strategies is to emphasize cleanness and safety in order to relieve hotel guests’ anxiety towards coronavirus. Palace Hotel Tokyo received the international certification related to hygiene. GBAC STAR Facility Accreditation for
the first time in Japanese hotels in August 2020. GBAC means Global Bio-risk Advisory Council. The hotel employees need to disinfect tables, sheets and doors every 30 minutes they need to check guests’ temperatures and disinfect guests’ hands. They need to limit the number of guests in the swimming pool. Mandarin Oriental Tokyo started “We Care” program of implementing strict protocols to protect the health of the guests. The standards of hygiene is verified by Lloyd's Register, internationally
known independent assessor. The hotel also follows the instruction of local authorities advises on safety. The hotel group is the first luxurious hotel to adopt contactless payment and booking using Wechat pay and Alipay to prevent the infection of coronavirus. Contactless payment would be one of the advantages to increase the demand of Chinese tourists after the pandemic.
Another strategy is using signature story. According to Aaker, 2018, “the content is king in the digital age and stories are the key to the content. The social media audience isn't passive. It is in control. It involves itself in messaging only when it is intrigued by the content
thus the content drives success in this new era and content in turn, is all about stories.” In other words luxurious hotels tend to use their signature stories to attract more customers. Let me explain the example of The Peninsula Tokyo. The vintage Rolls Royce made in 1934 is the signature of The Peninsula Tokyo. The vintage Rolls Royce is quite traditional and beautiful and normally only couples who have the wedding ceremony in the hotel can ride. However to the campaign “We
Meet Again” the hotel guest has opportunities to cruise by the vintage Rolls Royce, Phantom second. Japanese popular TV show infotainment Hirunandesu introduced the original experience, the vintage Rolls Royce ride on 24 August 2020 so actually the signature story and vintage Rolls Royce attracted possible customers. Let me explain another example of signatures stories for guests who cannot travel. Shangri-La Tokyo collected recipes from four different Shangri-La hotels, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Tokyo and London. The Shangri-La Afternoon Tea which
includes the four different Shangri-La hotel’s sweets and the savories for a limited of time. Actually I tasted the Shangri-La afternoon Tea. It was awesome. According to Kotler, 2017 “when the content reaches a key influencer in the intended audience group, that content is more likely to go viral.” Influencers such as Yuki Kaneshiro, Ayapom, Yusho-ri, mentioned the Shangri-Lal afternoon tea and the story included five different Shangri-La hotels’ sweets and foods. In fact,
the signature story of Shangri-La hotel attracted more customers. According to Aaker,2004, the classic way to differentiate your brand in matured category is to add service. For “Meet Us in Tokyo” package, lining up service for a ramen restaurant in ramen street along Tokyo station and the complimentary breakfast for two and complementary third night are offered valid between 14 September 2020 and 20th March 2021. Lining up service for a ramen restaurant is actually quite a special service and it will attract more guests.
Let me explain another example of the special service. The peninsula Tokyo offers welcome cocktails and welcome amenities of Mango puddings and the chocolates. The peninsula Tokyo offers a pick up or drop-off service in Haneda airport or Tokyo station for a limited of time during the pandemic. Let me explain the other example of Palace Hotel Tokyo. Palace Hotel Tokyo 2020 suggests unique summer stay plans to encourage families to stay there preparing for kids room for a limited of time from 3rd August and 31st August 2020. The
hotel collaborates with the private company to provide excellent distinctive services such as helping children of the hotel guests to learn programming and the history of Imperial Palace and enjoy hiking wearing a casual kimonos. This service will attract guests who have children. Some five-star hotels improved the brand loyalty program. Let me explain the example of Ritz Carton Tokyo. Ritz Carlton Tokyo belongs to the Marriott Hotels Group. It has Marriott Bonvoy Program if you are the member of the Marriott Bonvoy Program, you can get the 20 discounted accommodation-fee and free breakfast. Most of the five-star hotel developed new products to attract the guests. Let me explain the example of Ritz Carlton Tokyo. Ritz Carlton Tokyo produced a bocktail, bottled cocktail and Azure
45 Michelin one-star French restaurant offers the whole course take away. It costs 30,000 yen. Let me explain another example. The palace hotel Tokyo offers take away food. Please look at the photograph. This is the lunch box and it is offered by the Japanese style restaurant, Wadakura. It costs 12,000 yen. I ordered it and I enjoyed eating it at the room of The Palace Hotel Tokyo. It was so delicious and beautiful. Some five-star hotels offer exclusive experiences to attract guests. Let me explain the example of Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. Mandarin Oriental Tokyo
offers a wine tasting class sake tasting class and pasta cooking class for stay guests. Actually I joined the sake tasting class and the hotel employee recommended some suitable dishes for different sakes. Let me explain another example of The Peninsula Tokyo. The Peninsula Tokyo offer the dim sum cooking class and the cocktail mixing class if you book the Peninsula Tokyo by the official website you can enjoy the one of the classes.
In summary, what kind of strategies do luxurious five-star hotels adopt to attract customers during the pandemic? 1. Emphasizing cleanness and safety 2. Using signature story. 3. Offering special services for improving brand loyalty program, 5. Developing the new products. 6. Offering exclusive experiences. The next section, I will give you some questions. Can I give you some questions to make sure whether you understand today's lecture? question 1, What is the name of the most famous institution which announce award winners rating stars every year? a. Forbes Travel Guide, b. JTB, c. Booking.com I will give you five seconds to choose your answer, 5 4 3 2 1.
The answer is Forbes Travel Guide. Go on to the next question. Question 2, what is the signature item of The Peninsula Tokyo? a. BMW b. Mercedes-Benz, c. The vintage Rolls Royce. I will give you five seconds to choose your answer, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The answer is the vintage Rolls Royce. Question 3, what was the special service of The Palace Hotel Tokyo in August 2020? a. nanny service b shoe polishing service c. free dinner, I will give you five seconds to choose your answer, 5 4 3 2 1. The answer is a nanny service. Go on to the next question. This is the last question. Question 4, which hotel developed the new product, Bocktail? A. Shangri-La Tokyo, b. The Ritz Carton Tokyo, c. Mandarin Oriental Tokyo,
I will give you five seconds to choose your answer. 5 4 3 2 1. The answer is b. Ritz Carlton Tokyo. The Ritz Carlton Tokyo developed the new bottled cocktail, it is called Bocktail. Luxurious hotels in Tokyo whose main guests were inbound tourists were struggling to attract Japanese guests during the pandemic. However five-star hotels maintained high-level service, added exclusive guest experiments, developed new original hotel products and utilized the signature stories in an effort to cope adopting these strategies to increase the satisfaction of guests could better secure the future of luxurious hotels in Japan and the world amid the ongoing global pandemic. Thank you for listening. I would like to recommend two books. the first book is Aaker's brand portfolio strategies if you are interested in brand, you must read it. Another book is Kotler’s
Marketing 4.0. He describes the trend moving from traditional to digital in a marketing field
2021-05-24 18:45
