ABBA RESORTS is based in Taiwan.

Aiming to improve the cultural service

quality of hotels, enable customers to deeply experience the local culture
aesthetic. ABBA's masterpiece "ABBA RESORTS IZU" perfectly blends the
local unique culture. I have been informed that the company is in the process
of developing a market in China and considering a location. I recommend my
hometown —Datong.

The city of Datong, Shanxi Province, the coal mining industry is the backbone
of its economy, but following pollution problems, demand for coal has fallen. In
2008, Datong was transformed into a "tourism capital", with tourism as a pillar
industry, belonging to tertiary industry.

In 2018, not under pandemic ,the city's total tourism revenue was 62.09
billion, of which 61.69 billion was domestic tourism revenue. And this year, the
city's regional GDP achieved 136.99 billion, the tertiary industry accounted for
57.9%. This shows that tourism has become a pillar industry and has a huge
flow of tourists, mostly domestic tourists.
As shown above, the city's retail sales in the accommodation and catering
sector grew by 7.8% to 7.90 billion in 2018. It revealed that locals also spend
money on hotels due to social mobility. In terms of climate, Datong has long
winters, lasting more than four months, with average temperatures -9.5°C. In
terms of transport, Datong Railway Station is in the middle of the Beijing-
Baotai Line and is served by many trains daily to major cities in China. Datong
Yungang Airport has an annual passenger capacity of 1,307,193,000. As
such, Datong can efficiently cope with the huge volume of domestic and
international passenger traffic.

Yanggao County, is a major grain-producing county. It has a good

development of facility vegetables and apricot fruit industry and is rich in
geothermal resources, with a daily output of 12,000 cubic meters of water,
and the local government has created a hot spring town with the theme of
"Wei City”. Yanggao Grottoes, Wutai Mountain Buddhist culture and nomadic
customs are integrated. Meanwhile, with the opening of the Dazhang High
Speed Railway, the journey from Beijing to Yanggao for tourism will be
shortened by more than 2 hours, and the hot spring water town will become a
must-visit destination for tourists from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. These are
collections of elements that make hotels successful, namely geothermal
energy, tourist volume, scenic beauty, distinctive culture, fresh ingredients and
transportation network, so this is best site selection.

In addition, in 2020 the government of Datong implemented the

"Implementation Plan of the People's Government of Datong on the Active
and Effective Use of Foreign Investment to Promote High-Quality Economic
Development" with the aim of creating an attractive investment environment.
The programs includes: easing market access, deepening the reform of the
"service and efficiency" system, implementing tax reduction policies, and
establishing a municipal M&A information database. These policies allow
company to enter the market with greater ease, greater freedom, lower costs
and a shorter start-up phase.
Your company's entry into the market may result in the loss of customers from
local hot spring resorts and increase the unemployment of local people. There
are four hot spring resorts in Yanggao County. As shown above, they are all
group vacations and paradise modes, whereas your company is a boutique
hotel offering ichigo ichie hospitality services. Therefore, the segmentation will
be tourists from affluent cities .ABBA hotels can form PODs to make the
positioning more distinctive, demonstrating that they are personally relevant
and important to someone who wants to rest in Chinese style and love quiet
comfort. It is also possible to use differentiation strategies, with expertise
personnel introducing local customs and crafts, the best cooking team in Asia,
and Chinese style layout. The product feature is a separate open-air bath and
Chinese garden. These make the target group more specialized. ABBA Hotel
will not have a direct conflict of interest with local resorts and provide more
employment opportunities for local people.
I suggest that your company can implement a direct entry strategy. As
company has the experience of operating "ABBA RESORTS IZU", already
have professional and proven overseas marketing experience, such as digital
marketing, integrated virtual and real marketing, and a precise target market
and strong financial resources. In terms of promotion, company can place
billboards at Datong Airport and High-Speed Rail stations, using “premium”
and “Hot Spring Hotel” as descriptors to convey category membership, and
add some pictures showcasing PODs which are ichigo ichie hospitality
services and independent hot springs, so that visitors can learn about ABBA's
image and increase brand knowledge. Implementing mobile marketing, join
Chinese’s hotel reservation application namely Ctrip, which has over 4 billion
users, and add financial benefits, offering short-term discount or
accommodation experience, on the condition that join membership and share
their feelings after the experience with a questionnaire to help with CRM
marketing, using collected data to differentiate customer needs for
customising product and massage. Those strategies will help the company to
build up a customer profile and learn about Chinese people's accommodation
preferences for cause-related marketing. In conclusion, I recommend that
Datong is the most suitable city for ABBA RESORTS to expand the business.

(850 word)
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