China’s Wanda Hotels opens first international property

Insight Comment We’ve seen plenty of Chinese brands expand overseas but a lot of the time this has been done by investing in existing brands, such as Fosun in Thomas Cook and Jin Jiang in Louvre Hotels Group. Wanda is making the more unusual step in using its own brand for its first opening abroad.

Wanda Hotels and Resorts has opened its first internationally managed hotel – Wanda Vista Istanbul – in Turkey.

The property is close to Istanbul Airport with 127 guestrooms and 320 serviced apartments.

The Wanda Vista Istanbul and Wanda Vista Residence project was signed in 2017 and jointly developed by Mar Yapi Turizm A. S., a real estate developer from Turkey.

Wanda has previously announced a project in Langkawi, Malaysia, which is scheduled to open in 2023.

What is Wanda?

Wanda Hotels and Resorts was founded in 1996 and is part of conglomerate Wanda Group.

Like many hotel companies elsewhere in the world, Wanda has gradually moved towards an asset-light strategy having sold off $9.3 billion worth of hotels, land and projects to Sunac China Holdings in 2017.

The company currently has seven hotel brands: 

• Ultra-luxury - Wanda Reign
• Luxury - Wanda Vista
• Premium - Wanda Realm
• Upscale lifestyle -Wanda Yi, 
• Select service - Wanda Jin 
• Premium midscale - Wanda Moments 
• Midscale - Wanda Yue

Wanda Hotels & Resorts currently owns or managers 104 hotels and has more than 180 hotels under construction.