The Interlaken OCT Hotel Shenzhen is creating new opportunities for MICE planners in China to host events close to Hong Kong. The hotel's general manager, Joseph Zitnik, joined OCT Group in 2006 and is now responsible for developing new growth points for the company at this location.

How is your hotel positioning itself in the local hotel market?
The Interlaken OCT Hotel is positioning itself as a luxury five-star themed hotel in Shenzhen that is operating as a resort hotel and outside the city proper. This gives us some advantage because we can appeal to the MICE market during the week as we have outstanding conference facilities and a unique location for conferences and incentives. On weekends and holidays we will market to holiday makers who would like to get away from the city and spend a day or two at the wonderful new OCT East area, only an hour's drive outside the city.

What sort of changes have you implemented since taking over in your new position?
Well, in the time that I have been here my sole focus has been to open the first five-star OCT Hotel as the flagship hotel in the OCT Hotel Group. So my role has really to bring in an international five star hotel culture and systems and to develop these within OCT Hotels Group.

What type of benefits do you gain from your close proximity to Hong Kong?
Well the obvious benefit is the ability to market to the large MICE market located so close by in Hong Kong as well as to establish OCT East as a new holiday destination for the Hong Kong market. OCT East will become an amazing and one-of-a-kind tourist destination over the next couple of years. Our theme parks, Interlaken Village, Theatre of the Arts, Tea Garden, Wetlands, Interlaken Spa and many, many other attractions will draw guests from all over Southern China and Hong Kong.

For your meetings and conferences, what sort of facilities do you have in place and how many staff are responsible for this section?
Located atop a mountain overlooking Dameisha and minutes from Yantian District, The Interlaken OCT Hotel provides wonderful new meeting venues like our 1000 seat theater and Viennese style grand ballroom all featuring high tech equipment to meet the high demand MICE market, such as simultaneous interpretation equipment. We have about 100 staff dedicated solely to handling meetings and conventions.

OCT East is a nine square kilometer integrated resort which combines three valleys (Knight Valley, Tea Stream Valley and Wind Valley) and three towns (Interlaken Town, Seafield Town and Ancient Tea Town) and also consists of two championship golf courses, indoor tennis centre and amazing teambuilding facilities. Meeting planners will be able to offer their clients a multitude of experiences either individually or specifically tailored for their Group. All of this plus The Interlaken OCT Hotel's five-star service and features make for an exciting and marketable meeting venue with unlimited possibilities.

How do you integrate Shenzhen's local attractions with your hotel's identity?
Here at OCT East we are basically creating an all-new destination with a whole lot of new attractions to come. Our hotel's role is to support this new destination area of OCT East and to provide a high quality hotel experience to those guest choosing to stay overnight within the resort. By staying with us, guests will be able to enjoy benefits and savings throughout OCT East that normal day visitors will not be able to.

How do you see Shenzhen's hotel sector developing in the next 5 years?
The market will become much more competitive as a multitude of new five-star luxury accommodations open up. The city will have many more international hotels opening which is very good for the businessperson and holiday maker as they will have many more top quality hotels to choose from. Of course, this will make it more challenging for all of us hoteliers.

More hotel bookers in China are now getting their research and information online. How is The Interlaken OCT Hotel Shenzhen utilizing email marketing, Web campaigns, and new media to reach the executives who now rely on these mediums?
We are developing high quality, interactive websites for both The Interlaken OCT Hotel and OCT East that feature direct web-based reservation systems and clearly defined room rates and easy to understand packages. In Shenzhen, OCT as a group is a savvy company and we are developing creative email marketing systems with our large industry and customer database.

Our company is in the final phase of completing our up-to-date and customer-friendly online reservation system. We have just set up our OCT Hotel Group central reservation office and are able to take and confirm hotel bookings immediately by phone. We are currently in development to do much of our marketing online, through connection to the central reservation system and partnering with a reservation and distribution network. OCT Hotels will also start their Loyalty Marketing Program in the next few months.

If you are able to only say five words to a hotel booker or meeting planner who is thinking of choosing your hotel, what would those five words be?
Interlaken Hotel, Always Delighting You!

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