Last week on October 15, Campanile inaugurated its first hotel in China, at the heart of the Shanghai business district. This brand can count on the unflagging support of its shareholder, Jin Jiang, as it enters the Chinese market and launches a massive deployment plan to open 250 hotels by 2020.
When Jin Jiang International bought Louvre Hotels Group one year ago, it already had big plans for its heritage brand. The ambitious schedule for new Campanile hotels in China is matched only by the new shareholder’s enthusiasm for its concept: “The Jin Jiang teams told us right from the start. They love Campanile! For them it is a very innovative concept with a “French touch” that fits the profile of a new, emerging, high-potential Chinese clientele,” reminds Pierre-Frédéric Roulot, CEO of Louvre Hotels Group.
Successful skill transfer
In order to optimize the brand’s arrival on its new market and adapt to the local clientele, Campanile and Jin Jiang teams worked hand in hand for a full year. The opening of this first hotel in China has enabled them to measure the effectiveness of the group’s internal training program. For over two months, the head office hosted a dedicated training program for future local managers. One of the main objectives was to transmit the group’s culture and, more specifically, Campanile’s identity in order to make these managers future brand ambassadors in China.
Food service, particularly strategic to embody the “French touch”, was also designed to bridge the two cultures. Future Chinese chefs and cooks were invited to Paris for a two-week training session. The French teams then went to China in order to finalize their counterparts’ technical training and work with them to create the restaurant menu.
The new “Le Comptoir” areas are another key to the Campanile concept, bringing something new to the Chinese hotel market: “We are particularly proud of our Le Comptoir space in Shanghai. This vast unstructured space, set up around an iconic central bar, provides our Chinese clients with a convivial space to relax and exchange,” declares Pierre-Frédéric Roulot.
More than one hotel opening per week
Adapting the concept to the wants and needs of the local clientele enables the group and its shareholder to nurture particularly strong ambitions for Campanile. Four hotels are currently in the planning stages and should open during 2017. By the year 2020, China will be home to 250 Campanile hotels. That means an average of 1.5 hotel openings per week for four years!
To date, the group had a total of 376 Campanile hotels in 8 countries. With this opening in Shanghai, the brand opens onto its ninth market, while its deployment plan should practically double its numbers in just four years.
