Self-confessed gypsy and chief of Asia Pacific at hotel chain Marriott International, Craig S. Smith tells of his rise up the ladder. Luo Weiteng reports.

'A gypsy" is how US-born hotelier Craig S. Smith likes to describe himself.

And he is not far off the mark. The Marriott International president and managing director for the Asia Pacific set up home in 13 different countries during his nearly three-decade career at the hospitality giant, from the Americas and the Caribbean to Australia.

This time, the global citizen packed his bags once again and traveled across half of the globe to land in Hong Kong, the Eastern hemisphere's international metropolis he had previously worked for a good eight years.

His assignment was followed by the big news that Marriott International acquired Starwood Hotels and Resorts, operators of the Sheraton hotel brand, for $12.2 billion in November, creating the largest hotel chain in the world in a bold move to boost Marriott's presence in key emerging markets like the Chinese mainland and India, where Starwood is well represented.

The global leader in hospitality now has more than 180 hotels operating in the Asia Pacific region, spanning nine brands including the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts in the luxury tier, Marriott Hotels & Resorts in the upscale deluxe tier, Renaissance Hotels & Resorts in the Lifestyle/Collection sector, Courtyard by Marriott in the upper moderate category, and Marriott Executive Apartments for extended-stay travelers.

Smith set off on his Hong Kong expedition with an ambition for the company to double its size in Asia within the next four years.

On the Chinese mainland alone, the company currently has 84 hotels, overtaking the US in the past five years as the largest source market in the APAC region and contributing to 30 percent of room nights for the hospitality chain, compared with the 15 percent by US guests in the Asia Pacific.

Over 140 Marriott-branded hotels are in the pipeline across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. On the mainland, outbound travelers in the first half of 2015 totaled 61.9 million, up 12.1 percent on-year over 2014. That number is expected to reach 234 million by 2020.

According to a report by consultancies China Luxury Advisors and the Fung Business Intelligence Centre, overseas spending by Chinese tourists is expected to rise 23 percent this year to $229 billion, and will nearly double to $422 billion by 2020.

Focus on China

"For years to come, we want to be in China, which is believed to (be set to) replace US as the world's largest exporter of outbound tourists within five years, or sooner," said Smith.

The hospitality chain is actively beefing up its presence in the world's second-largest economy, aiming at three groups of customers - Chinese domestic tourists, inbound foreign tourists and Chinese traveling abroad.

Smith noted that investing in hotels in China is not just aimed at expanding their business in the vast nation. Marriott hopes also to polish their brand, making sure when Chinese tourists travel overseas, they also would like to stay with Marriott.

"For Chinese tourists, the branding matters a lot, which makes them feel secure," observed Smith, who believes that in the high-end sector, Marriott does not really see any domestic competitors.

As part of its latest moves to explore a world of lucrative opportunities thrown up by the boom in Chinese outbound tourism, Marriott International and the Alibaba Group's online travel booking platform, Alitrip, have tied up to let Chinese travelers book hotel rooms online and on their mobile phones through a directly operated online flagship store that launched in November, a first for a major global hotel chain.

The agreement came two months after a partnership deal between Marriott and Ant Financial Services Group, an Alibaba affiliate, to roll out Alipay - created on the lines of eBay's Paypal - at Marriott hotels and resorts.

According to booking website hotels.com, 59 percent of Chinese international travelers, who prove to be younger, independent-minded and tech-savvy, rate local payment solutions as the second most important feature they look for in a hotel, after free Wi-Fi.

With some 70 percent of the online third-party payment market in the Chinese mainland being dominated by Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay, Smith said it was clear that Marriott cannot wait any longer to enable this functionality for their much sought-after Chinese consumers.

As for Hong Kong, even though a faltering Chinese mainland economy and declining mainland tourist arrivals are taking its toll, Smith rejects the downbeat tone of doomsayers.

Upbeat amid blues

"Hong Kong has always been cynical. We've had SARS, bird flu, financial crises and business going down. We've got all sorts of things," said Smith. "Right now we are suffering a little bit but over the long term, I think Hong Kong, positioned at the crossroads of East and West, will always stand as one of the most important markets in Asia."

And the next big thing for the hospitality industry, not only for Hong Kong but everywhere else around the world, is millennial travelers, Smith pointed out. "For my generation, all was about advertising, with people reading it and reacting to it. The millennials, however, want to participate, with social and digital media becoming unprecedentedly important, and everything happening on these portable devices," said Smith.

The seasoned hotelier is an avid social media user who shares insights on Twitter almost every day and on LinkedIn on a monthly basis.

Agnes Lu contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at sophia@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/21/2015 page9)