万豪看好中国市场

    与佳士得的合作效果如何？

    合作的目的是为了让我们的顾客无论身处酒店之中，还是城市之中，都能直接体验艺术与文化。我们的酒店曾独家举办过由佳士得组织的展览，比如在伦敦举办的之前从未公开的甲壳虫乐队（Beatles）的照片收藏。

    在芝加哥，我们即将举办一场19世纪与20世纪欧美艺术展。我们还与佳士得合作，为城市提供“时尚达人指南”，方便游客找到当地最好的美术馆等场所。

    JW万豪酒店未来有怎样的发展计划？

    总体而言，豪华酒店市场正在快速发展。品牌成立的前十年仅有10家酒店，如今，在未来四至五年，我们预计将实现50%的增长，截至2015年将有79家JW万豪酒店投入使用。

    目前正在筹建的30多家酒店中，位于美国的不足一半。它表明，全球增长是JW万豪酒店至关重要的一部分。

    豪华酒店市场增长最迅速的地区有哪些？

    主要是在顶级的旅游目的地和门户城市。我们在卡博与特克斯和凯科斯群岛的酒店即将开业，在威尼斯的酒店项目刚刚启动。在澳门与河内的酒店也即将开业。

    中国一直是我们发展的重点，印度也有巨大的潜力。我们计划，到2016年，在印度开设六家JW万豪酒店。巴西与俄罗斯也有巨大的发展潜力，目前我们在里约热内卢已经开设了一家酒店。

    我们在迪拜的酒店也已经开业，是世界上最高的专属酒店。

    迪拜是否已经从金融危机中恢复过来？

    四年前我去迪拜的时候，当地的气氛比繁荣时期要冷清许多。迪拜曾经遍地都是吊车。不过，我们之所以在迪拜开酒店，是因为这里的入住率普遍较高。街道重新繁荣起来，这座城市也是国际会议的主要举办地点。所以，我们的迪拜酒店配有许多会议场所。当地的活力已经有很大程度的回升。

    作为迪拜酒店开业的一部分，JW万豪酒店选择与国际女权主义组织生命之声（Vital Voices）合作。这种合作是出于什么考虑？

    我们希望成为生命之声导师网络的一部分，因为这个网络促进了全球各地的经济发展。JW万豪酒店的许多客户都是女性高管，她们相信，指导、支持和与其他商业女性交流非常重要。

    我们在迪拜的开业活动中邀请了100位女性进行交流，获得了更多资源。这些女性既有创业者，也有跨国公司高管。我们确保万豪国际酒店集团的高级采购总监朱蒂•霍普金斯与制作手工艺品或能为我们的酒店提供当地食材的女性见面。我们希望与公司高管们建立良好的关系，以便了解当地女性商业领袖的真实需求。

    How does the partnership with Christie's work?

    It was created to offer our guests a way to experience art and culture first hand, both inside our hotels and in the cities they're visiting. Our hotels are home to exclusive Christie's curated exhibitions, like a never-been-seen before collection of Beatles photographs in London.

    Upcoming in Chicago we'll have a showcase of European and American art from the 19th and 20th centuries. We also partner with Christie's to offer Tastemaker Guides to a city so that a traveler can find, for instance, the best local galleries.

    What are JW Marriott's plans for future growth?

    Overall, the luxury space is growing a lot. There were only 10 JW hotels in the first decade that the brand existed, and now we're anticipating 50% growth over the next four to five years with 79 JW hotels up and running by 2015.

    Of the 30 or so hotels we have in the pipeline, less than half are in the United States. This really shows that global growth is an important piece of the strategy for JW.

    Where are luxury markets growing fastest?

    In top tier destinations and gateway cities. We're opening in Cabo and Turks & Caicos. We just launched Venice. We plan to open soon in Macao and Hanoi.

    China has long been a focus and we're seeing huge growth in India. We plan on having six JW hotels in the country by 2016. We're also seeing growth in Brazil -- we have a hotel in Rio -- and in Russia.

    We also just opened a hotel in Dubai, where we opened the tallest dedicated hotel in the world.

    Has Dubai recovered from the financial crash?

    When I was there four years ago, things were quieter than they had been during the boom, when Dubai had more cranes per square mile than any other place in the world. But we opened in Dubai because occupancy rates are high across the board. The streets are bustling again and the city is a major destination for international meetings and conventions. So we built out our Dubai hotel with lots of meeting space. Activity there has really picked back up.

    As part of the Dubai hotel opening, JW Marriott paired with the international women's rights organization Vital Voices. Why?

    We wanted to be part of the amazing Vital Voices mentoring network because it supports economic development around the world. Many JW Marriott clients are female executives who believe that it's important to mentor, support, and network with other businesswomen.

    For the Dubai event, we brought together 100 women – from start-up entrepreneurs to executives at multinational companies – to network and gain access to great resources. We made sure that Jude Hopkins, senior director of procurement for Marriott International, was there to meet with women who might be making crafts or could supply local ingredients for our restaurants. We wanted to create local relationships with executives to better understand what women business leaders in the area needed.