Blog Posts By Author: Jin Koyama

I wrote a blog back on 13 Nov 2008 on a similar subject less than two weeks before the terrible Mumbai terrorist attacks. Since then, Mumbai started picking up the pieces, and I ventured off to Mumbai three more times in 2009 for more design charrettes and presentations to our TAJ client.

On a recent trip to Mumbai again earlier this month, Nick Poynton and Stephen Albert (from our WATG London office) and I attended the HIFI conference (Hotel Investment Forum India) at the Renaissance Mumbai Hotel and Convention Centre 12-14 January. It was a “networking-fest” for hotel executives, investors, lenders and developers who are interested in doing business in one of the world’s hottest markets – India.  

With approximately 200+ in attendance (relatively small as far as hotel investment conferences go), we were able to meet and exchange business cards with many people in a very short period of time.

Although the HIFI focuses on the Indian hotel market, the opening session on e-marketing strategies worldwide remains on my mind. The topic was how the Internet basically transformed the hospitality world with folks from Expedia and Travelocity leading the way. It took the Internet only 11 months to reach 10 million people -- compared to radio, which took 47 years and television (24 years) to reach the same milestone.

Industry experts suggested that China and India are expected to be the hottest markets for the next several years to come. This was resonated by the Hotel Leaders Forum with top officials from Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham, Carlson, Choice, and Hotel Leela.
 
Stephen was one of four panelists for the last session of the conference titled, “Development Track Workshop – Upscale and First Class Hotels.” The session was very interactive with discussions concerning whether first class hotels can stand alone or whether mixed-use developments are more viable … This all obviously depends on location, location, location. It definitely seems to be less expensive to develop in India compared to other parts of the world;  but I was reminded that the land cost in Mumbai is as high as in Manhattan, New York!

At the conclusion of the HIFI conference, we met many chairmen, CEOs, MDs, VPs, students of the hotel industry, and other architects and designers. We digested what the India market and the conference speakers had to offer, and believe WATG’s position as the leaders in hospitality design is best maintained by our continued cultivation of business development relationships.

With that, Stephen went off to Delhi to present a project in Goa and to meet with other clients for future projects. Nick and I stayed on in Mumbai to do the same, and had organized a timely meeting with our TAJ client for an ongoing project in Mumbai. Our meetings went well, and I am looking forward to our next trip.  

Flight back to Seattle was a short 24-hour door-to-door journey… We’ll be doing this all over again throughout the year.

Jeff Naprawa and I recently accompanied our client on a trip to Mexico and Panama to visit potential project sites and do a little market research. Fortunately for us the trip also allowed for a stop at the Edzna Pyramids.

Jeff Naprawa and I recently went to Mumbai, India for a two-day weekend design workshop. It took us on a 30-hour door-to-door travel adventure starting from our Seattle office.

This particular journey began by waking on Thursday at 4:00 a.m. (I had only just finished packing my bags two hours before.) The car wasn't there at the appropriate 4:30 a.m. pick up time as I ended up waking the driver from his sleep--he dashed by at 5:00 a.m.

The flight from Seattle to New York was a 5.5 hour packed economy flight, and then we had a six hour transit wait at JFK Airport. After feeling a lot like Tom Hanks in the film, "The Terminal", the flight departed at 9:00 p.m. on a more comfortable 14-hour business class seat. I finally reached the hotel on Friday night at 11:00 pm.

Welcome to Mumbai--formerly known as Bombay--with an estimated population (including the suburbs) of 19 million people. It is the financial capital of India and the city of Bollywood. We had a great Saturday and Sunday going through the project site and exploring various design possibilities and brainstorming ideas for the initial design concept. We also researched other Mumbai hotels and gathered information as we sketched, doodled and ultimately soaked up the city's ambiance--all in 48 hours.

Our client made an interesting comment while we dined in his rooftop restaurant: for reasons unknown to him, that particular location has had trouble maintaining a profitable business. The current enterprise is one in a series of attempts to find the right fit for the location. Whether the fault of poor marketing, service, location or venue type, it highlighted a concern for us to address for our upcoming proposal featuring a similar rooftop venture. Given the success of places like Sirocco in Bangkok or our own upcoming rooftop experience at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, we have come to think of this concept as a can't-miss design feature. This time around we'll have to work to sell the idea to a client made wary of the idea.

The flight back to Seattle was another 30-hour journey. We'll be doing this all over again before the end of the year to present the concept to the client!