Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives
The biggest players in the global hotel business have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and Central Hospitality International (CHi) is certainly no different.
CHi is owned by hospitality and restaurant group Central Plaza Hotel Public Company Limited (Central Plaza Hotel PCL), a listed subsidiary of Thailand’s largest retail conglomerate Central Group. However, travellers may be more familiar with the Bangkok-headquartered hotel chain’s six high-profile brands: Centara Grand, Centara, Centara Boutique Collection, Centara Residences & Suites, Centra by Centara, and Cosi.
At the end of 2019, CHi had 74 hotels and resorts in total, with close to 15,000 rooms in operation or under development across 14 countries. Besides its home market of Thailand, the chain could also boast of having a presence in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Japan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, China, Qatar, Oman, the UAE and Turkey.
Here, we examine some key CHi figures compiled by our research team to try and work out what’s happening behind the scenes at one of Asia’s biggest hotel operators.
CHi continues to grow international reach
The TOPHOTELPROJECTS construction database reveals that CHi has no fewer than 20 projects in progress as of 17 August 2020, with just one more on hold and one cancelled.
Of these live projects, more than half (11) relate to its four-star Centara Hotels & Resorts brand. This puts it well ahead of Centara Grand (five), Cosi Hotels (two), Centara Boutique Collection (one) and Centra Hotels & Resorts (one) in the development stakes:
Thai hotel chain progresses bold expansion plan
Despite the fact that South-East Asia has been severely affected by the sharp decline in travel from the likes of Europe and North America, we can clearly see that CHi is continuing to work through the vast majority of its development pipeline, with more than 90% of its schemes still active. This includes projects in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, as well as more distant locations such as Qatar and the UAE.
Ultimately, it seems CHi remains hopeful that 2020 will eventually come to be dismissed as a short-term blip for the travel sector, rather than the start of an extended period of depressed demand. Time will tell how accurate this forecast proves to be, but for now the good news for hospitality professionals everywhere is that one of the biggest names in the global hotel sector is continuing to invest heavily in realising new projects.
Many TOPHOTELNEWS articles draw on exclusive information from the TOPHOTELPROJECTS construction database. This subscription-based product includes details of thousands of hotel projects around the world, along with the key decision-makers behind them. Please note, our data may differ from records held by other organisations. Generally, the database focuses on four- and five-star schemes of significant scale; tracks projects in either the vision, pre-planning, planning, under-construction, pre-opening or newly opened phase; and covers newbuilds, extensions, refurbishments and conversions.
