Chinese theme hotels are less vibrant and attractive than European and American theme hotels. Chinese hotel industry is established and flourished in traditional hoteling but for last three decades a little effort is evident to capitalise the potential of theme hotels. In this research, issues in Chinese theme hotel industry has been tried to figure out and to evaluate the utilisation of success factors from best practices in these theme hotels. It is found that on the one hand, investors do not prefer China mainland for theme industry and on the other, present day players in the field are not using the available space for business properly. Theme hotels in China, barring a few good brands, are lacking in innovation, branding, fun, and customer satisfaction.
Today’s day business world had been redefined after the communication revolution and availability of diverse and swift mode of transportations for discovering thematic beauty around the world. The tourism and hospitality industry is also under immense influence of this global change and is offering innovative services to tourists visiting their place to provide them a unique and rich experience of their stay (Buhalis and O'Connor, 2005).
The Theme hotel is a concept or theme-based hospitality provision where all the external and internal appearances, facilities, services and offering are revolving around a particular theme, hence offering a complete sense of homogeneity and absorption of the visitor to that place into the particular theme (Goldman, et.al, 2002). The list of themes is long and varied and it may vary from home appearance to fantasy environment, all natural to science fiction, royal treat to Disney world and so on (Cook, 2009). However, the basic selection of a theme is closely linked to the needs of selected group of customers that is not exclusively available in general hospitality places (Milman, 2010). Around the world this concept has set its place and is considered as Imagineering in the business world to perceive the need of the target population of the business and to imagine an environment closely related to the satisfaction of those needs with the provision of an external to internal environment to live a particular theme (Ren, 2007).
The hotel business around the world is transforming under influence of other businesses and has influenced other businesses too. However, the this influence is differential in different parts of the world, for example from example of Disney World, it is very mature in the USA and similarly in Europe, but in Asian and African countries, theme hotels are available only with limited options (Cook, 2009). There is a gap between the adoption of the idea as well as the resultant success of theme business in Europe and China too. This calls for an investigation into the reasons behind this gap and factors resisting success.
Success is however a varied term that may be defined differently in different settings. In most general term, it is an accomplishment of an aim and purpose (Hill, 2013). For the purpose of this research, success means profitable businesses with the potential to further grow within the theme business. Success is therefore, measureable in terms of average growth rate of the theme sector of hotel economy, annual profits of a theme hotel, average number of visitors per annum / occupancy, probability of opening new themes within that regional area as well as in China etc.
This research; furthermore is conducted in Chinese hotel industry’s settings and therefore will focus on the today’s day business situation, environment and future prospectus of themed hotels in China with prime interest to explore critical factors affecting success.
The Theme hotel is such a concept that arose half a century ago in Las Vegas, Orlando and soon was adopted by Western society as part of their hospitality ideas, however, this concept was lately adopted in Chinese hotel industry and is in developing phase (Goldman, et.al, 2002). But the use of theme in parks is an old Chinese tradition like the imperial garden of Yuanming Yuan was built in 1774, therefore, the acquaintance of Chinese society with themed areas is not new (Ren, 2007). Presently, in China mainland as well as in Hong Kong, there are a number of theme hotels operating with themes like romance, culture, symbols and royal living, however, as compare to the business opportunity keeping in view the market volume in China, the concept is still in infancy. Similarly, theme hotels are restricted to a few neighbouring areas, hence showing its geographical closeness and proximity (Wang and Zheng, 2010). There is a need to review the facto
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