When the pandemic hit and destroyed many industries, tourism got hit the hardest. So, as a business that’s heavily reliant on tourism, we needed to reinvent our service and create a new experience that would give travelers new reasons to stay in our hotel again. And that new reason came when China imposed a gaming ban that saw 532 million Chinese gamers lose their right to play games for more than 3 hours a week. Riding on that, we created the Gamer Asylum – equipping every room with the latest gaming equipment so gamers could play with no restrictions.

ARTOTEL Group is one of Southeast Asia’s largest hotel chains with more than 156 hotels in Southeast Asia: Since its inception, ARTOTEL has always been an advocate of creative hospitality, personalising the hotel experience according to the local arts and culture wherever they operate. But when the pandemic hit and destroyed many businesses and industries, the tourism sector got hit the hardest with reports showing that tourism arrivals fell by over 65% globally. Even when borders opened up, the fear of traveling coupled with the strict restrictions outweighed the usual reasons to travel. So, as a business that’s heavily reliant on tourism, our hotels needed to find new sources of revenue to stay afloat. The brief was clear: We needed to reinvent our service and create a new experience that would give travelers new reasons to stay in our hotels again.

In 2021, China imposed a gaming ban that saw 532 million Chinese gamers lose their right to play for more than 3 hours a week. What was bad news for another country became the best news for our struggling hotel business. From a trending problem, we created an entirely new travel experience. For the first time ever, we created the Gamer Asylum – where we equipped every room across all 156 of our hotels with state-of-the-art gaming equipment, from computers and headsets to the latest trending games, along with high-speed internet for gamers to play with no restrictions. A bold idea from a hotel chain that capitalised on an opportunity to expand our target audience from our usual base of travelers to the 532 million gamers in China.

Before the pandemic, ARTOTEL’s guests were made up of traditional travelers. But when borders opened up after the pandemic, they weren’t booking our hotel rooms anymore regardless of the many promotions we offered. So, we needed to look beyond our traditional base of customers to acquire new ones. And we started by creating an entirely new travel experience. In lieu of the recent gaming ban in China that saw over 532 million gamers lose their right to play for more than 3 hours a week, we saw an opportunity to turn a trending problem into a travel trend by transforming millions of these gamers into our potential new customers. So, we created the Gamer Asylum – where we equipped every room across all 156 of our hotels with the latest gaming equipment, from computers and headsets to trending games, along with high-speed internet for gamers to play with no restrictions.

Since China’s censorship is incredibly tough to beat, we had to overcome all of the social media restrictions through non-traditional advertising channels. We blasted our film inviting Chinese gamers across hundreds of platforms from Chinese gaming forums to Reddit and gaming streaming platforms like Douyu, Huya, Zhanqi, Huomao to Longzhu. Wherever gaming exists in China, we were there. Even though our film was taken down by some platforms after 24 hours, it was too late as the news caught on like wildfire. On ground, we put up Gamer Asylum posters in gaming cafes across China. Every poster became an invitation for them to stop playing restrictively and start playing freely in any one of our 156 hotels in Southeast Asia. By simply scanning our poster, they were entitled to a promotion for the Gamer Asylum.

While other businesses succumbed to the effects of the pandemic, ARTOTEL Group saw a significant increase in business. Through this campaign, we saw 535% increase in Chinese visitors and 59.7% increase in bookings – all in the middle of a tourism crisis. From one of the biggest hotel chains in Southeast Asia, ARTOTEL Group became one of the most talked-about hotels globally, garnering organic coverage from the world’s trendiest media outlets like Hypebeast, Fortune, and Mashable. The tourism minister of Indonesia coined Gamer Asylum as a ‘genius and brilliant idea’ in response to the tourism crisis. While Gamer Asylum was intended for gamers in China, the campaign saw a significant boost in site visits from all corners of the globe. Though our short-term results were incredible, ARTOTEL Group saw a long-term change in our brand image, transforming ARTOTEL into one of the most innovative and creative hotels in the world.