Driven by an appetite for risk

Wyndham Hotel Group President and Managing Director for China Liu Chengjun is looking to challenge convention in the hospitality industry with his daring product offerings

By partnering with a consumer drone maker and setting up the likes of Simpsons-themed rooms, Liu Chengjun, Wyndham Hotel Group's (WHG) president and managing director for China, is hoping to connect to the millennial generation in China in a way that he says might become a game-changer for the whole industry.

"The hospitality industry has been too quiet for the past decades," Liu told China Daily USA after the group's annual forum which was held in June. "I want to be a disrupter and stir some change by teaming up with some unlikely partners."

Prior to WHG, Liu spent more than a decade at the headquarters of French hospitality group Accor before returning to China in 2008 to join Costa Crociere, the first cruise company to enter the mainland.

"There is no point in telling the stories of each of our 19 brands," he said. "Young people today won't listen to it. We want to create a conversation with the millennials, talking to them in a language that they like to listen to and finding out what they want."

According to consulting firm Agility Research & Strategy, millennials in Asia make an average of 4.2 leisure trips every year, the highest among all age groups. Moreover, 62 percent of these individuals decide on their destinations based on research from social media, and 75 percent would post updates at least once on their social networks while travelling.

As such, Liu's strategy for WHG hotels is to create offerings that would be deemed worthy of sharing on social media, such as rooms with themes based on cartoons. The group has also struck a partnership with domestic company Power Vision to provide drones for hotel guests.

Liu, who manages a portfolio of 11 brands comprising nearly 1,400 hotels in China, said there are no concrete plans with regard to the number of hotel rooms that will feature characters from The Simpsons or those licensed by China Brands Group, the country's largest intellectual property management and licensing agency.

He noted that the decision to include cartoon-themed rooms in hotels would be one that is left to the owners of each property. The majority of the group's hotels in China are franchised.

Meanwhile, most of the drones will be offered to guests staying at WHG hotels that are located along China's coastal areas so that they can be used during water sports.

"It's not only about attracting young guests to our hotels - these offerings also add value to what each property can offer in the competitive market," said Liu, a Beijing native who formerly worked as a diplomat in China.

"The hospitality industry does not lack professionals who are good at taking care of people from head to toe, dawn to dusk. However, you will rarely find a trendsetter or game-changer. I think I am a born disrupter who is willing to take risks, like the Simpsons-themed rooms," he added.

Founded in 1981 and headquartered in New Jersey, WHG is the world's largest hotel company in terms of room numbers. It opened more than 250 new WHG hotels in the Chinese mainland last year.

In 2014, months after Liu was appointed to the helm of the group, the company organized a gala show involving more than 40 domestic celebrities at bbb Imperial Ancestral Temple, a historical site that dates back to 1420.

The group said that the elaborate publicity stunt managed to garner an online viewership of more than 170 million within seven months and is believed to have increased the group's brand awareness by 30 percent.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn