The booming Chinese economy is affecting the world economy in a big way. In the luxury travel sector, affluent Chinese tourists are flocking to luxury hotels around the world like never before; which is why there is increasing interest in what the wealthy Chinese traveler seeks while on holiday. So it comes as little surprise that there is finally a report ranking 15 luxury hotels that Chinese travelers search for the most.
Digital Luxury Group, the first international company to specialize in market intelligence for the luxury industry, teamed up with Luxury Concierge China and Luxury Society to rank and analyze the top 15 hotels that draw the most searches from Chinese tourists. Luxury Concierge China is a Shanghai-based travel service and consultancy, while Luxury Society is the biggest online community of top professionals from the luxury industry. Armed with those high credentials, the three organizations have put together a list of the 15 most-searched-for luxury hotels among Chinese travelers.
The report is part of the wider World Luxury Index, which covers over 400 brands across six segments in the luxury industry. The segments are: fashion, beauty, jewelry, cars, watched and hospitality. The index studies search engine results for brands in these segments across ten luxury markets. The index is based on data from four leading search engines: Google, Bing, Baidu and Yandex.
Top 15 Luxury Hotels
Are you eager to know what the leading hotel properties are? Here is the list:
1. Sheraton
2. Hilton
3. Shangri-La
4. Intercontinental
5. Westin
6. Four Seasons
7. The Peninsula
8. Kempinski
9. Nikko
10. Ritz-Carlton
11. Hyatt Regency
12. Banyan Tree
13. Le Meridien
14. Renaissance
15. Sofitel
Analyzing The Top 15 Luxury Hotel Brands
As you will already have noticed, these are some of the biggest names in the luxury hotel business. Sheraton leads in the search engine rankings with 13.58 percent of total searches, but according to Digital Luxury Group, it is still anybody’s game. The Chinese travel market is growing fast thanks to the rising disposable incomes of Chinese tourists. There is still scope for new players in the hospitality industry to move into the top spots.
One characteristic that pops out at first glance is the number of American hotel brands featured on this list. Sheraton, Hilton and Westin make it to the top five. They also have strong presence on the luxury hospitality scene in China, and are well-known among the target clientele in the emerging nation. Incidentally, Sheraton was also the first luxury hotel brand to set up shop in China, way back in 1985.
Chinese vacationers who are looking to unwind by booking into hotels with luxury spas end up searching for Banyan Tree over 40 percent of the time. Coming in second with respect to this criterion is No. 3 on the overall list, Shangri-La.
While compiling and analyzing the list of 15 most-searched-for hotels, Digital Luxury Group also studied the preferred locations of Chinese vacationers. Within China, Shanghai and Beijing topped the list and were followed by Chongqing and Tianjian. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali were leaders in the international travel sector, with the former two scoring among both business and leisure travelers.
