A Liverpool hotel manager is swapping Merseyside for Shanghai to spearhead a major hotel opening programme.
Laurence Whittle, general manager at the Campanile Hotel in Liverpool, is making the 6,000 mile trip later this month to start work on opening up to 200 new Campanile hotels across China for the Louvre Hotels Group over the next two years.
The 33-year-old’s promotion to Director of Hotel Openings will see him supervise the opening of each hotel, before moving on to the next one.
The hotel opening programme is being driven by Jing Jiang, one of China’s biggest hotel groups, which completed the takeover of Louvre Hotels Group in 2015.
Laurence is flying solo on his oriental adventure after originally growing up in Preston, before holding general manager positions at Campanile Hotels in Runcorn and Glasgow.
He said: “It will be different to what I’m used to, particularly when it comes to the food, but I have mastered the art of using chop sticks and I think I’m ready!
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience a different culture and develop my career within an exciting business, so I couldn’t turn it down.
“I’ll be living in Shanghai but will be travelling from city to city, visiting all of the hotels to ensure they have all of the tools needed for a successful opening, whether that’s having the right equipment and facilities, through to recruitment and the appropriate training.
“Another exciting development is that some of the hotels we will be opening could potentially become ‘smart hotels’ whereby guests can check themselves in on their phones and customise the colour of their room by controlling lighting via a tablet.
“Once my two years is up in China I’m hoping it will open up even more doors for me, as I know the group is focusing on developing other hotel brands such as Metropolo and Golden Tulip in various parts of Asia.”