6 | Bed & Breakfast News | Summer 2017
The first International B&B
Conference in Shanghai
The first-ever International B&B Conference took place in
Shanghai, China on 20th June, with the (UK) B&B Association
appearing as invited special guests and keynote speakers.
David and Louise Weston told an audience of 350 delegates about the history of British
B&Bs (the conference chairman introduced them as coming from “Great Britain, where
the B&B concept started”), the structure of the tourism industry here, the practicalities
of running a B&B, and the factors making a successful B&B business.
The B&B Association were the only
participants invited from outside Asia
– other countries represented included
Taiwan and Japan.
The conference was organized and
sponsored by the Shanghai Morning
Post, and its venue was the new (opened
officially by David Weston during his visit)
and spectacular Royal Garden Hotel, a 229
room hotel whose construction cost £200
million and took seven years. It is built in
traditional Chinese ‘pagoda’ style of dark
teak wood, and interiors lined with marble,
onyx and jade, surrounded by beautifully lit
and immaculately tended Chinese gardens.
The unique hotel (right) was a sumptuous
backdrop to a very professionally organized
conference – which was also sponsored
by one of China’s car making companies,
Roewe (who also provided the cars and
drivers for the conference speakers).
The conference was a fascinating insight
to a new and developing B&B sector in
this vast and (to a Westerner) enigmatic
country.