Page 17 - Berita Sunway - Issue 71

Features

THE POWER OF DIGITAL PANDEMIC REALITY FOR HOTELS
MARKETING The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Ipoh He opined that the hospitality industry is
Digital infrastructure is merely one aspect of recorded a 95% room occupancy rate for four usually slow at adapting to change and when it
Sunway Resort’s digital transformation process – consecutive months following the easing comes to technology, the industry must move
building stronger customer relationships via digital of MCO domestic travel restrictions in June forward and keep up with its demand and
marketing is crucial to being relevant in the market last year – underscoring the strong demand for upgrades, he said.
and ultimately, to win market share, Castaldi said. travel – and hospitality players – even during
a pandemic. “Digitalisation is not an overnight process.
“We need the customers to buy in digitally, so The fact that the renovation was due to happen
we place a lot more effort on digital marketing “During Sunway’s ‘Ke Sana Ke Sini Ke Sunway’ last year helped us to speed things up. If not
with a greater emphasis on social media across all travel campaign, we sold 26,000 hotel room for COVID-19, we would have taken slower
businesses. In China, Weibo and WeChat are nights. This shows that people still need, and steps. Change is not easy to make – by the time
proper means of conducting sales but in Malaysia, want to travel and experience fun but they just you change, something else may crop up. We
more traditional social media such as Facebook cannot now. While 2021 will still be a difficult should not redesign all businesses to adapt to
and Instagram still play an important role in digital year for everyone and we need to be prudent, the pandemic but if new opportunities present
marketing. In business, it is important to cater to come 2022, I foresee a boom in hospitality themselves, we should seize them,” he said.
the new generation of customers, so we welcome once things normalise again,” said Castaldi.
digitalisation in our hotels,” he said.

Alex Castaldi, senior general manager of
Sunway City Kuala Lumpur Hotels

Within moments of announcing that Sunway
Resort will be home to the first Gordon Ramsay
Bar & Grill located outside of London, the hotel
received overwhelming enquiries and reservations The Gordon Ramsay Restaurants
– six months ahead of the restaurant’s opening
in June.
The Gordon Ramsay Restaurants partnership Sunway Resort is currently collaborating with
This was one of the reasons Sunway Resort chose is another way Sunway Resort is investing into a company to set up a digital studio in the
to partner with Gordon Ramsay Restaurants – the its long-term future. hotel’s meeting rooms to enable guests to have
social media reach of the brand of about one billion advance and innovative virtual meetings and
people, said Castaldi. “One thing we learnt from the pandemic events globally. “This could be a future trend.
is that among the hotels in the Klang Valley The world has changed, so it is important to
“A digital agency commissioned by Sunway Group that were hardest hit by the MCO, good continuously innovate and excel to be the
found that the announcement made through our F&B outlets kept hotels afloat compared to best,” he said.
social media pages and press release we had sent room-only hotels. Many hotels may neglect
out reached 20 million Malaysians in a day and the positive impact F&B can bring to their
was published in all key media publications online. business. The more variety of unique facilities
On our Facebook page, the post reached 1.3 and world-class services that you provide, the
million viewers in 3 days. This has shown us the more opportunities there are to attract and
importance of being relevant and taking advantage retain guests,” said Castaldi.
of opportunities,” he said.
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