Marco Polo Hotels Group is a hotel chain group based in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. It operates hotels in the Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...

 region including Hong Kong, Mainland China

Mainland China

Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...

 and the Philippines. Its hotels in Hong Kong are all located in Tsim Sha Tsui

Tsim Sha Tsui

Tsim Sha Tsui , often abbreviated as TST, is an urbanized area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsim Sha Tsui...

, Kowloon

Kowloon

Kowloon is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. It is bordered by the Lei Yue Mun strait in the east, Mei Foo Sun Chuen and Stonecutter's Island in the west, Tate's Cairn and Lion Rock in the north, and Victoria Harbour in the south. It had a population of...

. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wharf (Holdings) Limited. The hotel group's chairman is Peter Woo

Peter Woo

Peter Woo Kwong Ching GBS, JP MBA is Chairman of Wheelock and Company Limited and The Wharf Holdings Limited.-Education and career:...

, chairman of the Wharf Group.

History

The company was founded in Hong Kong with the launch of The Hong Kong Hotel in 1969. Following the success of this 664-room flagship property and the growing Asian economy, the company opened two more hotels in Hong Kong: the Gateway Hotel with 433 rooms in 1982, and the 393-room Prince Hotel in 1984. All three properties are part of Harbour City, one of Hong Kong's largest shopping and commercial centres.

The three Hong Kong hotels were initially managed by The Peninsula Group in Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels. In 1986 Wharf decided, based on the commercial success of the three hotels, to start its own hotel management company under the name Marco Polo International, with the objective to further develop hotels in the region.

In 1989 Wharf bought Omni Hotels in North America. The hotel division was rebranded as Omni Hotels Asia-Pacific, creating global marketing synergies with the Omni brand. In 1996 Wharf sold Omni Hotels North America and the Hong Kong hotel division was rebranded as the Marco Polo Hotels Group.

Properties

Current locations of Marco Polo Hotels are in Hong Kong (Marco Polo Hongkong, Gateway and Prince), mainland China (Marco Polo Parkside Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, Marco Polo Wuhan

Wuhan

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...

, Marco Polo Xiamen

Xiamen

Xiamen , also known as Amoy , is a major city on the southeast coast of the People's Republic of China. It is administered as a sub-provincial city of Fujian province with an area of and population of 3.53 million...

, Marco Polo Jinjiang, Marco Polo Shenzhen

Shenzhen

Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...

) and the Philippines (Marco Polo Plaza Cebu

Cebu

Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands...

 and Marco Polo Davao

Davao

Davao refers to several closely related places in Mindanao in the Philippines. The term is used most often to refer to the city.*Davao Region, an administrative region*Davao del Norte province*Davao del Sur province*Davao Oriental province...

).

A pipeline of nine new hotels will nearly double Marco Polo's scale by 2015. Marco Polo Lingnan Tiandi Foshan

Foshan

Foshan is a city in central Guangdong province in southern China. The prefectural area under the city's jurisdiction over an area of about 3,840 km² and a population of 5.4 million of which 1.1 million reside in the city proper ....

 is set to open in December 2011. Cities where other new Marco Polo hotels will be opened from 2012 onwards include Changzhou

Changzhou

Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, Jinling, and Wujin. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the...

, Changsha, Chengdu

Chengdu

Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...

, Chongqing

Chongqing

Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...

, Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...

 and Wuxi

Wuxi

Wuxi is an old city in Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. Split in half by Lake Tai, Wuxi borders Changzhou to the west and Suzhou to the east. The northern half looks across to Taizhou across the Yangtze River, while the southern half also borders the province of Zhejiang to the south...

.

External links

• Marco Polo Hotels Group