A Chinese hotel in Australia
by Leon Gettler
The Chinese are moving in to compete, with Australian hotels.
Primus Sydney in Pitt St is owned by Shanghai-based Greenland International Hotels Group.
It is Greenland’s first Australian hotel. It opened just before Christmas last year.
The hotel has 172 rooms across six levels. There are suites as well as a rooftop pool and bar. And it is strategically located next to the adjoining $700 million residential complex on Bathurst Street. That’s also owned by Greenland Group. And it sits next to Greenland Tower which is the tallest residential tower in Sydney at 235 metres.
Greenland has around 70 hotels in 20 Chinese provinces, either completed or now under construction.
Greenland Australia managing director Sherwood Luo told Business Insider the company was expanding its hotels in Australia because it was confident about Australian tourism.
He said it was a “great opportunity for Greenland to familiarize the tourism market in depth”.
He said it was looking to attract local and overseas tourists.
And it was looking to expand with an eye on “suitable opportunities with potential presences in different cities”.
It makes sense why Greenland would target the Australian market. China is now a big driver of Australia’s booming tourism industry.
China’s rapidly emerging middle class has helped Australia attract more than a million Chinese visitors in a year. Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that in the 12-months to November, there was a 22 per cent growth in short term visitors from China to 1,001,200. This has made China the country’s most valuable tourist market. It’s worth a remarkable $7.7 billion a year, and it’s the second largest source of visitors after New Zealand.
With Greenland’s operations in China, the hotel chain is perfectly placed to attract visitors from China to Australia with package deals.
Luo maintains that Chinese-designed hotels will attract a different market to Western brands.
16th March 2016
