The cooperation will be focused on developing and deploying Smart Hotel solutions to power the transformation of hotel operations and services for Shangri-La, and will expand to more future collaborations across various businesses within the Shangri-La Group worldwide.

Ms. Hui Kuok, Chairman of Shangri-La Asia Limited and Mr. Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent attended the signing ceremony at Futian Shangri-La Hotel, Shenzhen.

By leveraging Tencent’s strength in technology and connectivity, and by incorporating Shangri-La’s hotel experience and business resources, the partnership will help drive technology innovation and business transformation of traditional industry models and enhance service quality and guest experience for hotel operators.

The Tencent and Shangri-La partnership is an example of collaboration between traditional hotel industry and the internet and technology sector. Tencent’s leading technology in Cloud computing, AI, social communications and payment platforms will help support Shangri-La’s business transformation of its services and operations.

With Smart Hotel solutions, Shangri-La will be able to deliver greater convenience and personalised experience for its customers. At the same time, Tencent will be able to leverage Shangri-La hotels as testbed to continuously enhance and promote its Smart Hotel technologies.

In addition to Smart Hotel, Tencent and Shangri-La have plans to bring the strategic partnership to cover a much wider scope and scale in the future. Shangri-La will utilise its worldwide hotel network and business resources to support Tencent in promoting its cutting-edge technology to the world.

The two companies will also explore the application of digital solutions and smart technologies beyond hotels to include Shangri-La’s real estate business in shopping malls, service apartments, office buildings, as well as in over 500 hotel restaurants and other catering business.

Ms. Hui Kuok, Chairman of Shangri-La Asia Limited said, “We share the same vision with Tencent that technology is people-oriented. People and service are at the core of our business. The value of technology is not to replace the warmth of human contact and personal interaction. We will strive to work with Tencent and integrate hardware with heartware, and to continue to deliver innovative products and excellent customer service.”

Mr. Dowson Tong, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent said, “As one of the world’s premier hotel companies, Shangri-La has nearly five decades of experience in hotel operations. By incorporating Tencent’s technology expertise in the internet sector, we can achieve greater success together. Our partnership can help Shangri-La enhance its capability in providing services and greater operational efficiency, as well as provide best practices for the transformation of the hotel industry.”