[CC may contain inaccuracies] Being a quarantine hotel is really very much to support the community.
But thankfully we've been in a positive ISE all this time and our numbers are doing.
Of course not during the pre pandemic level but we're not far off especially in some some some. I mean different cities to
cities but we're not very far. And the company as you say is doing better than others.
But when it comes to to revenue and profits it's still falling compared to pre pandemic levels.
What is your view on the path to recovery now for Dorset and your portfolio of hotels. Yes of course. I mean definitely
because the cost has also gone up with the health and hygiene standard because we're using a lot of medical equipments and
also the whole the East Coast system. So the cost is actually not cheap. Doing a quarantine hotel. So definitely you know our
revenue and also of course the occupancy. It's not like the same before. In terms of recovery again in each country is very much
different. So we have opened a hotel during the Covid in Australia. That's the Ritz Carlton in Perth. We're lucky with
that hotel because places like Australia is very much domestic travel. So we have had a good occupancy with around 60 percent
average maybe 80 percent because staycation goes up. So I think this question is a very good question. But in each city and
country it's a little bit different like places even like Japan. We have opened three hotels during this time of the pandemic.
We've opened two hotels in Kyoto one in Ginza. And they're doing OK because of a lot of domestic travel and the boosters from the
government in Japan. There's the go to travel whereby the government give you allowances to to travel differs maybe market
to market. But when do you expect things to go back to pre pandemic levels.
Do you have any kind of crystal ball right now. I don't think anyone will have a crystal ball. But if you ask me I think at
least another year we are really redesigning some of our product. I think consumer
behaviour will change. I mean it is a very big impactful Covid is huge in terms of impact on all industry and consumer
behaviour. So I do feel that if you look at surveys and if I just look at
not know Hong Kong but my global statistics people are travelling but their length of stay is longer and hence some
December. We're launching our first long stay product service department Dow by Dorset in London.
Walk us through a little bit more about the future of travel. What are certain some trends that you see that are maybe short
term and what are some things that are actually more permanent. Sure. If you look at times like surveys people that really 40
percent of people asked to travel at the moment is really visiting families and friends. And in the last two years I guess
that's really put in a standstill. So you can already look in terms of the recovery we're really seeing people travelling
staying a bit longer to visit their family and things like that. But I think that this will neutralise one to wear more out of
the pandemic situation. The pandemic has definitely accelerated people's investment into
technology as a group for ourself. We're definitely investing into a much more contactless things contactless lift contactless
check in and things like that. And of course I think people will be more concerned about air quality and all this. And I think
it's very important that we embrace it as a company. What are you seeing in your different portfolio of hotels whether it's
Australia or Europe. Are things coming back in a bigger way than you expected. Definitely. In Europe we're seeing a lot of UK and
Europe that the numbers are really going up and we can see the pace of it. I think what we always look at is the pace of
booking that's really come back quite strong. And Australia and Japan because of the domestic travel and no longer they're in
lockdown. So you can really see much much more staycation coming forward.
China has been on a growth since a year ago and it's really resume back to almost normal. Yes. What's the group's plan for
further expansion where city strategy companies. So we like to actually have hotels in the stadium that we are already in and
we very much like. So in the UK London definitely we're looking at Manchester and
Australia where we already have our presence. We are opening Gold Coast that is south. Boxing Day will be opened in Gold
Coast and we are opening. We opened in Perth. We're going to open in Brisbane Sydney as well as Melbourne. What's the
transformation that you want to see for four Far Eastern consortium. You guys are in business for 70 years since your
grandfather. Discovery. Yeah. What is the vision then as a third generation on how to transform the business moving forward. Next
year is our 50 year being listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange. So that's a really milestone for us in terms of transformation. We
want to grow with the city that we're in and we we have since my grandfather time always been quite global.
And it's actually most enjoyable because we've always been in kind of entertainment and consumer related. So. During my
grandfather time were in cinemas. We're also in theme parks TV stations and you know s different entertainment take place and
we're in property development now as well as hotel and so in generation. You know we have always been very close to the
customers. And most important is that we need to always think that we are together growing with the customer. And we'd like to
always to kind of mid. Even with hotels we're not prone to do four star hotels. We like to really do more kind of mid middle
class products. I mean just looking ahead I'm just wondering in the next 5 10 years what's the vision there. And in the end the
day when you look back on your work in the family business. What sort of legacy do you want to leave behind. I always believed
that we must as a business continually growth since since I started in 2010 we were at eleven hotels and now we're at 64
hotels. Definitely we would want to grow our portfolio more in terms of product. We have our four star Dorset. We have three
styles Silke. And we've just added doll service residents. And we do hope that this we will expand our global footprint in
terms of legacy. I want to leave behind. It is really making a difference and hopefully also influencing more. And and just to
make a difference for our future generations.