Houston, it's almost time for take-off...

Hi all!

Soooooo. China! I’m heading there in two days. Why you may ask? What’s in China that’s so worth seeing? Well, how about it being the land of the world’s longest standing living and documented population? How about a land producing The Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Army, The Forbidden City, the Three Gorges Dam and a country that recently hosted the olympic games? Or if you wanted to get even more recent with it, a country with exceptionally optimistic economic growth in a time of serious world-wide recessions? Either way you put it, China is a formidable beast of a country on the rise as a world power.

The point of the trip is to immerse myself in this expanding giant so that I can study its culture and look at the differences between brand name perceptions in China (oh, and whatever else I decide to explore while I’m there.) The main focus is to look at the country and its culture and then find how that plays into the perception of hotel brand names. Will a Holiday Inn in China have the same brand perception that it does here? Are there  more independent hotels, rather than chains? Is the concept of a luxury hotel the same here as it is there, and, if so, are there any dissimilarities between amenities offered? And, if I have time, what are the Chinese willing to spend on their concept of luxury?
I’m really excited about exploring the country and look at what the hotels there have to offer. Who knows, I might just find something I really like…. I’ll be adding background information about the work environment and current hotel developments over the next few days while we’re beginning our trip over. It’ll give me something to do to pass the time.

See you on the other side of the Pacific!
Whitney