{"id":7022,"date":"2025-12-05T02:55:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=7022"},"modified":"2025-12-10T12:44:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T12:44:04","slug":"luxury-hotels-must-have-a-point-of-view-to-attract-visitors-hungry-for-experiences-says-andre-fu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=7022","title":{"rendered":"Luxury hotels must have \u2018a point of view\u2019 to attract visitors hungry for experiences, says Andr\u00e9 Fu"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Travel destinations the world over are struggling with a new kind of traveler: a younger millennial or Gen Z tourist, hungry for experiences rather than cookie-cutter hotels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Today\u2019s tourists are \u201clooking for a point of view,\u201d interior designer Andr\u00e9 Fu explained at the Fortune Brainstorm Design conference in Macau on Tuesday. In other words, they are looking for a specific atmosphere or design ethos in choosing where to stay or eat.<\/p>\n

And, Fu explained, this even extends to the luxury hotel space. \u201cLuxury is not about the fabrics. It\u2019s not about the marble. It\u2019s about feeling. It\u2019s about connection. It\u2019s about the emotion that you get when you\u2019re in a space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have that feeling that this is a space that\u2019s designed around you, rather than you being just a particle in that environment\u2014that sense of resonance is so invaluable,\u201d Fu said. \u201cAnd I guess that level of connection \u2026 is what designers are thriving for these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swire Hotels deputy chairman Toby Smith agreed that travel patterns were changing. \u201cWe\u2019re finding that people are extending their trip. They\u2019ve got a business trip, and they might extend the trip by a day or so to really explore the city or the location they happen to be in,\u201d he said. That opens up an opportunity for personalized service, such as hotel staff personally escorting someone staying at Upper House Shanghai through the city\u2019s historic French Concession district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fu\u2019s first hotel project was Upper House Hong Kong, a small luxury hotel developed by Swire Hotels, which is under the umbrella of conglomerate Swire Pacific. The property developer is now planning to expand its luxury hotel brand, Upper House, to several cities in mainland China and East Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The impetus behind Upper House and its tagline, \u201cHouses not hotels,\u201d Smith explained, was that younger tourists \u201cwere looking for something a little bit more youthful, perhaps a little more dynamic, less stuffy, less formal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n

Lucas Schifres for Fortune<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Upper House hotels are also small, with the Hong Kong property offering just over 100 rooms. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to deliver true personalization and luxury for a property that has much more than 100 keys,\u201d Smith said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In mid-October, Swire Hotels rebranded its upscale House Collective brand as \u201cUpper House,\u201d and pledged to open several more properties across the region. The next hotel, Upper House Shenzhen, will open in 2027, and features designs from German architecture firm B\u00fcro Ole Scheeren.<\/p>\n

Swire will follow Shenzhen with new projects in Xi\u2019an, Tokyo, and Bangkok\u2014which will be the brand\u2019s first branded residences in a project designed by Foster + Partners.<\/p>\n

Hotels and hospitality are \u201cincreasingly competitive,\u201d Smith explained. \u201cConstruction costs are incredibly high, so I think the only way to get value is to build luxury and charge more for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swire Hotels generated 441 million Hong Kong dollars ($56 million) in revenue for the first six months of 2025, a slight decrease<\/a> year on year. The company cited a slower-than-expected recovery in Hong Kong\u2019s hotel market and mixed performance in mainland China. Overall, Swire Properties generated 8.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.1 billion) for the first half of the year.\u00a0Swire Properties\u2019 shares are up just over 35% for the year so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Asian tourism\u2014which has long relied on visitors from mainland China, Europe, and the U.S.\u2014is starting to diversify. On Tuesday, Smith pointed to the Middle East and India as increasing sources of luxury tourists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very confident about our brand,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIf we stick to our principles \u2026 then we will continue to grow at the pace that we want to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Travel destinations the world over are struggling with a new kind of traveler: a younger millennial or Gen Z tourist, hungry for experiences rather than cookie-cutter hotels.\u00a0 Today\u2019s tourists are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":7023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[6448,8086,6154,8085,5875,1679,2705,2343,2645],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nLuxury hotels must have \u2018a point of view\u2019 to attract visitors hungry for experiences, says Andr\u00e9 Fu - 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