Huston Hotel Hospitality Has Been Exaggerated and Specialized to Meet Critical Chinese

HOUSTON (AP) — A greeting in Chinese is important, so hotels should have fluent Mandarin speakers on staff. Teapots and comfy slippers are essential room amenities, while a traditional breakfast of congee, a rice-based porridge, and a boiled egg would be a nice touch.

Cultural sensitivity also demands that white flowers be removed from lobbies, since they can symbolize death to the Chinese.

These are among the cultural tips tourism officials have for hoteliers competing for Houston's fastest-growing, biggest-spending group of international visitors — critical advice for fostering a segment worth millions of dollars to the Houston economy every year.

"If you do things right for Chinese guests, they will show loyalty," said Michael Udayan, general manager of theCrowne Plaza Suites, one of the local leaders in adding the touches Chinese travelers expect, from Chinese-language newspapers and television broadcasts to free shuttles to and from nearby Chinatown.

Spurred by new nonstop service between Beijing and Bush Intercontinental Airport, Chinese travelers have emerged as the eighth-largest group of international visitors to Texas and Houston. Five years ago, they weren't in the top 20.

An estimated 63,000 travelers from China visited Texas in 2012, up 50 percent from 2011, and they added $175 million to the Texas economy, including $75 million in Houston. With Air China beginning four-day-a-week nonstop flights last summer, those numbers are said to be increasing.