Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The gap reaches to the top. When Albar arranged for an international summit on wo-
men to be held at his Marriott hotel in 2010, the government balked. At least eight hun-
dred delegates would be attending from around the world. “The government said it didn't
want the summit at my hotel, that it was too close to the central railroad station and that
wouldn't give a good impression. I had to go through higher government authorities to win
clearance. The compromise was to have arrival cocktails at the People's Hall,” said Albar.
“Before, the hotel for a summit would have been fully under government control. Now of-
ficials are learning new ways. They say they want Beijing to have more conferences—they
have to learn how we do it.”
As yet, there are no Chinese hotel chains and few mainland Chinese managers at
the international hotels. Albar's senior staff members are natives of India, Singapore and
Malaysia.
“Some industries are more difficult for the Chinese to understand at this stage, espe-
cially ones like tourism that involves foreigners and their food, drink, behavior, entertain-
ment,” said Albar. “In a decade, that could change.”
At first glance, this makes little sense. Chinese culture is great in part because of its
cuisine and the enjoyment of food, drink and conversation. By the eighteenth century,
China was crisscrossed with eating clubs, restaurants and inns. Chinese tea shops were
crowded with travelers. Food stalls served prized snacks of the season—cakes, salt eggs, wa-
termelon, sea scallops. Restaurants were known for their specialties, some for their service
by beautiful young women. Buddhist temples served artful vegetarian meals on festival
days. Chinese banquets could last days. The food was served on porcelain, the finest in the
world, and eaten with chopsticks.
Jonathan D. Spence, the noted historian of China, points to the journal of the British
ambassador to China in 1793, who wrote that “the poorest classes in China seem to un-
derstand the art of preparing their food much better than the same classes at home.”
During the Communist revolution the culinary and hospitality arts withered in China's
blizzard of change. Their revival has been tied to the economic boom. Like everything
else, those Chinese habits and arts are being filtered through the desire to appeal to a glob-
al standard. The bridge for this has been overseas Chinese from Asia and North Amer-
ica. With their knowledge of the modern world as well as the old Chinese culture, these
Chinese managers from Hong Kong or Singapore have helped lead the budding tourism
industry with their practical abilities and their insight into what works in the Chinese con-
text. Now, thirty years after the initial opening, native Chinese are taking their places in
the tourism business.
One example is Zhang Mei, a rare woman entrepreneur in the Chinese tourism in-
dustry. She is the mirror image of Javier Albar. Zhang Mei is a young Chinese woman
who founded her own company, a high-end boutique tour operation that has won accol-
ades from experts like
Condé Nast Traveler.
Zhang and Albar agreed on most aspects of
Search WWH ::
Custom Search