TOKYO—With a firm foothold established in native Japan, Hotel Okura Company is turning its attention overseas in an attempt to ramp up its brand presence, particularly in Asia.
Shouldering a heavy portion of that burden is new brand Okura Prestige, a chic and modern offering designed to net high-end business travelers.
“Hotel Okura Company … wishes to focus on expansion of our presence outside of Japan, especially in other Asian countries, targeting the most luxurious segment of the market. This brand extension—the Okura Prestige brand—represents progress towards that goal,” Junko Igarashi, who heads the company’s marketing department, wrote in an email. “The Okura Prestige brand focuses on midscale luxury hotels and is intended to express a very modern sensibility in design, feel and atmosphere while also providing warmth and intimacy to guests.”
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Junko Igarashi |
“Our target market for this brand is high-end business travelers,” she added. “We are also targeting local customers with our restaurants, bars, meetings and banquet facilities and other facilities, depending on the hotel location.”
Hotel Okura Company opened its first Prestige hotel, the 240-room Okura Prestige Bangkok, on 14 May. The second, the 208-room Okura Prestige Taipei in Taiwan, began welcoming guests 3 August.
The company is targeting “major cities all over the world” for expansion. The end goal: “We aim to have built a network of 100 hotels, 30,000 rooms, around the world by 2015.”
The Prestige brand complements Hotel Okura Company’s four other offerings: Okura Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Okura Frontier Selection, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City. The latter two fall under the umbrella of JAL Hotels, of which Hotel Okura acquired the majority of shares in September 2010.
“Our Okura Hotels & Resorts portfolio consists of upscale, luxury properties, and this brand fits very well into that portfolio but will have special appeal to those who love modern architecture and design,” Igarashi said.
All in, the combined portfolio comprises 78 hotels (51 of which are in Japan) and 24,304 rooms.
Funding expansion
Hotel Okura Company primarily conducts business on a management-contract basis. “Thus we do not invest our own funds in the opening of new properties,” Igarashi said.
However, the company would consider sliver equity to open properties in major international gateway cities such as Paris, London or New York, she said.
If Hotel Okura’s Prestige and other brands are to grow, that growth will come on the dime of others—which could prove challenging as the company attempts to embark into unfamiliar terrain.
“One of the major challenges in growing our brand is raising brand recognition outside of Japan,” Igarashi said. “On the one hand, since the opening of our first hotel in 1962, the Hotel Okura brand has grown to be a well-known brand in Japan, thanks to our loyal guests. … On the other hand, compared with other major worldwide hotel brands, our brand is still not recognized well enough in certain areas, and we keenly realize the necessity of raising our brand recognition worldwide.”
Igarashi said Hotel Okura’s relationship with JAL Hotels should prove instrumental in the road ahead.
“JAL Hotels and Hotel Okura Company have cooperated with each other in activities to expand sales and marketing. For example, we have hosted various sales events and workshops together, participated in tradeshows, and implemented joint advertising campaigns and events,” she said. “In addition, we have combined the development project management departments of both companies, an important key to developing new projects.
“Hotel Okura Company continues to collaborate with JAL Hotels more and more in the areas of sales and marketing, development and so forth to raise our brand recognition.”