Day: November 23, 2021

GUIYANG ART CENTRE HOTEL, EMBLEMS COLLECTION, IN THE HEART OF CHINA’S GUIZHOU PROVINCE, WILL BE THE BRAND’S FIRST HOTEL

PARIS, Nov. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Accor, a world leading hospitality group featuring one of the industry’s most diverse and fully integrated hospitality ecosystems, is delighted to introduce Emblems Collection, a unique global portfolio of boutique hotels and luxurious resorts. Emblems Collection is launching with a magnificent flagship hotel – Guiyang Art Centre Hotel, Emblems Collection in China’s Guizhou province, slated to open in December 2022. The luxury brand is expected to grow to 60 properties around the world by 2030.

“Emblems Collection adds a fresh and exciting new dimension to Accor’s luxury offerings. A key focus of our growth and development strategy is to add aggressively across our strongest lines and leading business accelerators, which includes luxury as well as collection brands, while ensuring all 40+ brands in our global network continue to grow, evolve and flourish,” said Sébastien Bazin, Chairman & CEO, Accor. “The hotels we will feature in Emblems Collection are those sought out by travelers who appreciate high-end, boutique-style experiences, as well as by hoteliers who cherish the independent brands they’ve built while desiring the benefits that come with a global partner.”

With the creation of Emblems Collection, Accor is broadening its footprint in the collection brands space and will look to replicate the success it has achieved with another of the Group’s brands – MGallery Hotel Collection, a storied portfolio that now counts more than 100 boutique hotels worldwide. With a similar free-spirited approach, yet focused on the luxury segment, Emblems Collection will feature unique hotels that are ’emblematic’ of their designers, demographics or destinations. Appealing to the stylish and the smart set, signature elements of the brand’s hotels will include luxurious surroundings, Instagram-worthy pools, and vibrant public spaces. Hotels and resorts joining the Emblems Collection will fall into three categories:

• Emblems Collection Heritage – hotels that are landmarks of a destination – the buildings that contribute to the character of a city, place or nation; properties that celebrate the hallmarks of history and classic cultural traditions.
• Emblems Collection Retreat – resort properties along blissful beaches, bucolic countrysides or nestled in the mountains, offering sumptuous spa and wellness experiences with holistic care and enrichment through rituals, serenity and wellbeing.
• Emblems Collection Signature – design-led hotels that embody an aesthetic universe, an ode to the style and signature of the designers or original residents who contributed to the hotel’s unique legacy.

Designed for independent hoteliers
The Emblems Collection brand is designed with the needs of independent and boutique hotel owners in mind. For those seeking to upgrade their property’s luxury status and give their global profile a boost, the hotel brand standards of the collection are flexible, light, and easy to attain, with opportunities to sign franchise agreements – the only Accor luxury brand to offer this option. The new brand will encourage its hotels to retain their unique identities, which is important to hoteliers who have invested in creating a certain style for their hotel and/or market. Moreover, Emblems Collection provides direct ROI and the opportunity to maximize revenue with immediate access to the power of Accor’s sales, distribution and loyalty platform.

“For owners and developers who have created unique luxury hotels, or are looking to develop a new upmarket offering, we offer a collection brand that can boost their property’s status and profile with limited investment in marketing and branding, along with an easy transition process,” said Agnes Roquefort, Chief Development Officer, Accor. “With Emblems Collection, a hotelier can optimize their costs and operations right away by leveraging Accor’s powerful global distribution and supply networks, while expanding their audience reach from the moment they join. We look forward to working collaboratively with more hoteliers and development partners to bring more hotels around the world to this outstanding collection.”

First Stop: China

Guiyang Art Centre Hotel, Emblems Collection is the inaugural flagship of the new hotel portfolio, residing in the city’s famous Guiyang Art Centre. Originally built as an opulent private residence, this crown jewel of the capital city attracts visitors with its lush landscaping, sprawling grounds, and serene wellness ambience.

Guiyang Art Centre Hotel, Emblems Collection

The city of Guiyang is well-known for its lovely warm climate, being centrally located in the province of Guizhou, and enjoys an enviable location along the north bank of the Nanming River. Often referred to as the ‘capital of summer resorts in China’, Guiyang is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, a leading tourism hotspot, and a popular destination for luxury travelers, both domestically and from afar.

“As one of the most important hospitality markets in the world, China is the perfect location for Accor to launch our newest luxury brand, and we are honored to work with our trusted partner, HLC Group on this landmark project. HLC is a respected business leader in Guizhou province and recognized as one of China’s top private enterprises; we are delighted to partner with them to bring our shared vision of the new Emblems Collection hotel in Guiyang to life,” said Gary Rosen, CEO, Greater China, Accor. “This grand and enigmatic property has long captured the attention of residents and visitors to Guiyang. Emblems Collection will bring a fresh, modern expression of luxury living to this iconic landmark, setting the high standards of hospitality and style that we expect for this brand as it expands to other markets worldwide.”

With 64 extraordinary suites and two magnificent ballrooms, guests will love the new Emblems Collection hotel, with its exciting mix of atmosphere, grandeur, style and innovation. Whether enjoying the serenity of the swimming pool, spa and fitness area, or the social buzz of one of the sophisticated hotel’s stylish bars, lounges and restaurants, the Guiyang Art Centre Hotel, Emblems Collection is certain to become one of the most popular hotels of the capital city of Guizhou province.

With a plan to grow the collection to 60 properties by 2030, Accor is actively seeking new properties to be part of Emblems Collection in targeted destinations across the globe. Paris and Prague are two key cities where luxury heritage hotels might be candidates for Emblems Collection Heritage or Emblems Collection Signature. Other target cities for potential growth include London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, Marrakech, Cairo, Amman, Doha, Moscow, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney, Montréal, New York, Havana, Cartagena, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Santiago, among others. For the Emblems Collection Retreat, short-listed destinations include Tuscany, Mykonos, Bodrum, Algarve, Bali, Australia’s Gold Coast and Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

ABOUT ACCOR
Accor is a world leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,200 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. The group has one of the industry’s most diverse and fully-integrated hospitality ecosystems encompassing more than 40 luxury, premium, midscale and economy hotel brands, entertainment and nightlife venues, restaurants and bars, branded private residences, shared accommodation properties, concierge services, co-working spaces and more. Accor’s unmatched position in lifestyle hospitality – one of the fastest growing categories in the industry – is led by Ennismore, a creative hospitality company with a global portfolio of entrepreneurial and founder-built brands with purpose at their heart. Accor boasts an unrivalled portfolio of distinctive brands and approximately 260,000 team members worldwide. 68 million members benefit from the company’s comprehensive loyalty program – ALL – Accor Live Limitless – a daily lifestyle companion that provides access to a wide variety of rewards, services and experiences. Through its Planet 21 – Acting Here, Accor Solidarity, RiiSE and ALL Heartist Fund initiatives, the Group is focused on driving positive action through business ethics, responsible tourism, environmental sustainability, community engagement, diversity and inclusivity. Founded in 1967, Accor SA is headquartered in France and publicly listed on the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ISIN code: FR0000120404) and on the OTC Market (Ticker: ACCYY) in the United States. For more information visit group.accor.com, or follow Accor on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Press Contacts: Charlotte Thouvard, charlotte.thouvard@accor.com; Mike Taylor, mike.taylor@accor.com; Line Crieloue, line.crieloue@accor.com

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1694412/Accor_Accor_introduces_Emblems_Collection___a_captivating_portfo.jpg
Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1694414/Accor_Accor_introduces_Emblems_Collection___a_captivating_portfo.jpg

DUBAI, Nov. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The 5G market continues to enjoy impressive momentum globally. Early leadership from ‘pioneer’ operators in South Korea and China has given way to extensive deployments and healthy adoption across developed, and a growing number of developing, markets. With smartphone vendors building strong portfolios of affordable and attractive 5G smartphones, the 5G market is enjoying growth that has exceeded expectations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and global supply chain challenges.

According to the GSA, by the end of September 2021 180 operators in 72 countries/territories had launched 3GPP-based 5G services, either mobile or fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband deployments: 172 were offering commercial 5G mobile services and 66 5G FWA services. At the same time in the 4G lifecycle, Strategy Analytics counted just 75 commercial 4G LTE networks.

Those networks have grown at an impressive rate. More than 1.5 million 5G base stations have been deployed in the last two years, with over one million of these in China. Few operators globally have moved at the pace of the Chinese, but there are a growing number of operators who have built out 5G to more than half of the population in their market. By the end of 2021, Strategy Analytics forecasts that 2.3 billion people will be covered by at least one commercial 5G network, 29% of the world’s population. As with the network launches, this rate of coverage growth is more than 2x that seen with 4G LTE. We forecast that 5G networks will cover two-thirds of the world’s population by the end of 2026.

While the rate of 5G network expansion has been encouraging, Strategy Analytics has been impressed with the momentum building behind Standalone 5G in 2021. Again, the GSA has counted 19 operators in 15 countries who have launched public 5G Standalone networks by October 2021.

As you would expect with these deployment trends, 5G subscriber growth has also been strong and significantly outperformed 4G. The number of 5G subscriptions globally increased from 510 million at the end of June 2021 to 640 million in September, a level that it took 4G over five years to reach. According to our device technologies team, 425 million 5G phones were shipped in the first nine months of 2021, 3x above 2020 levels, and they forecast that 60% of smartphones sold in 2022 and 77% sold in 2026 will support 5G. Very early in the 5G technology cycle there is already ‘something for everyone’ in the smartphone market, with Apple dominating the high end and a growing number of (Chinese) vendors producing sub-$200 models for a global audience. While there has been healthy growth in FWA services and emerging enterprise applications, 5G phones are accounting for the bulk of 5G volumes today.

At Huawei’s recent Mobile Broadband Forum in Dubai, operators and industry bodies spoke clearly about the benefits they see 5G bringing to their business, to customers and to society. At a high level, the GSMA reiterated its call to the industry “to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive“, emphasizing the upside for 5G operators in value generation and in contributing to society by connecting the unconnected, unlocking economic growth and enabling carbon emission reductions. The SAMENA Telecommunications Council built on this message by highlighting the contribution 5G is making in the Middle East with the growth in 5G utilization in the healthcare vertical, a sector that has seen rapid digitalization as part of the COVID-19 response, and in the oil and gas industries.

One area where 5G has made a positive contribution to the COVID-19 response has been in the deployment of 5G FWA services to support the significant changes in working patterns and education. Zain’s operations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have seen an encouraging performance boost from promotion of 5G FWA services, with revenue and profitability improving as it has focused on high-coverage, high-performance 5G for broadband connectivity. Zain has 450,000 5G FWA connections and 15,000 5G leased line connections delivering an ARPU of US$70 (versus a mobile ARPU of US$26 in Kuwait and US$20 in Saudi Arabia). 5G already accounts for 40% of traffic for Zain in Kuwait.

Zain is one of a number of Middle East operators enjoying early success with 5G. As the region leads globally in 5G FWA deployments it is also seeing healthy adoption of 5G smartphones supported by strong network footprints. For example, in the UAE, du has over 10% of its subscribers on 5G (on a network covering 90% of the population), with smartphone adoption complementing the role of FWA as a mainstream revenue source for the operator.

Alongside these successes in the Middle East, we often talk about successful 5G developments in China, South Korea, and the US, where 5G accounted for 27%, 26% and 17% of subscriptions respectively at the end of September. It is worth also looking to emerging markets to see 5G growth already happening. In the Philippines, both Globe and Smart have built good 5G FWA businesses and 5G mobile B2C adoption is also starting to develop, with over 1.8 million 5G connections in that market (albeit just 1.2% of the total). While in Thailand, AIS had 1.6 million 5G handsets on its network delivering 1.5 million ‘5G package subscriptions’, equivalent to 4.3% of its total customer base or 13% of its postpaid base. AIS’s 5G network covers 42% of Thailand’s population (90% of the capital region) and 5G phone prices start at low as US$45 on a US$30 service plan contract. It’s 5G ARPU is over US$18, offering a 10-15% uplift over postpaid ARPUs, with good gains made in its postpaid market share in 2021.

The speed with which developing nations have entered the 5G market (embracing the economies of scale unlocked in China) sets it apart from the early days of 4G dominated by developed markets. The scale of 5G today, on most measures 2-3 times the size of the 4G market at the same time in its lifecycle, is impressive and significantly exceeds the expectations as the technology came to market in 2018 and 2019. There is still much work for operators to do to support the 5G application and services ecosystem and deliver on its promise, but the foundations are very much in place.