About Joon Ooi
Joon Ooi, President of Asia Pacific at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, has emphasized the company's "owner first" business philosophy as central to its growth strategy in the region. In a June 2025 interview, he stated that the company blends its own brand preferences with the realities of different markets and what owners want to decide how and when to grow. He noted that the Wyndham and Ramada tier brands remain strong favorites, accounting for about 50% of annual growth, while the company also introduces new brands. Ooi cited Microtel by Wyndham as an example of a brand adapted to local market nuances while maintaining its core DNA. He described the middle class as a key growth segment and said the company is aligning with consumer trends by focusing on the midscale level.
Ooi has also highlighted strong growth metrics for the region. In 2024, he said Wyndham opened 220 hotels and signed 286 in Asia Pacific, and noted that the company now has over 1,800 hotels in the region covering segments from budget to luxury. He pointed to China's domestic travel prospects, citing increased air capacity and infrastructure upgrades, and said China experienced a more than 150% increase in inbound travelers in 2023. In earlier remarks from 2020, Ooi described Vietnam as a market with "phenomenal growth" potential, with more than 10,000 rooms in its executed pipeline. He also discussed undergoing a 14-day quarantine in Shanghai in June 2020, stating that he felt China was "one of the safest places on earth" due to government-imposed processes for international arrivals.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Joon Ooi's recent appearances.
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Transcript (5 segments)
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Joon Ooi0:00
Well, the China hospitality market can be deemed as very dynamic. We have been doing very well in this market. We have a good strategy in place that we have been deploying, and we have a great infrastructure that will help us capture the growth as we go forward. And to what you said earlier, the China market is continuing to have good prospects for the next few decades. A few things that you mentioned earlier: the increase in air capacity, the drop in airfare prices, the continuing upgrading of infrastructure around the region and also in China. China has one of the most extensive rail networks, which also fuels domestic travel. So all the indicators in that market are pumping away: domestic travel, inbound, outbound. Last year, China experienced a more than 150% increase in the number of inbound travelers compared with the year before.
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Interviewer1:02
Yeah, I want to talk about the Wyndham brand. This is a brand I know very well coming from North America, and I know there's been presence in Asia for a long time, but a big expansion, a big push about five or so years ago. What is the strategy within Asia? Are there specific brands, specific parts of Asia that you're aiming to tackle at this moment?
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Joon Ooi1:23
I'll speak to a few of the strategic factors that contributed to how success can be attributed mainly to the deployment of what we call the 'owner first' business philosophy, which is essentially putting owners' interests and concerns at the forefront of everything we do, coupled with the deployment of the Wyndham Advantage. We have a strong network of business partners around the region, and we continue to leverage the strength of our brands. We have 25 brands globally, of which 19 are already introduced in this part of the world, and we continue to refresh some of the existing brands or introduce new brands into the markets to continue to be relevant, to go in flow with where the consumers and owners are going.
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Interviewer2:09
Yeah, and part of those new brands—this is really interesting to me because most of Wyndham operates in the economy to midscale territory, but making a push upward into even the luxury sector here. Tell me about that. Are you trying to have something for every type of traveler in Asia?
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Joon Ooi2:26
Pretty much. We like to say we have a brand for every occasion. Whether you're traveling with your loved ones, your family, your friends, or group tours, whether you're attending a wedding or business conference, we have a brand for every occasion. We have close to 1,000—actually over 1,800 hotels in Asia Pacific, and we cover the spectrum from budget all the way up to upscale, upper upscale, and even luxury.
