When the Hilton Hotel chain came to Hong Kong in the 1960s
The Post covered the arrival of the city’s first Hilton Hotel, from the announcement of plans to its demolition in 1994 by tycoon Li Ka-shing
“Executives of the Hilton Hotel chain said today that they would visit Hongkong for the express purpose of discussing plans for a new luxury hotel there,” reported the South China Morning Post on January 11, 1956.
“Mr John Houser, executive vice-president of Hilton Hotels International, and Mr Rug Purpus, publicity director for the new hotel chain, will leave New York on January 20 on a tour through Asia and the Middle East which will take them to Hongkong, Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Sydney, Melbourne, Djakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Bombay, New Delhi, Karachi, Baghdad and then to Cairo and Istanbul to inspect the new Hilton Hotels in those later two cities. Mr Purpus said: ‘Hongkong is definitely on our list. We are going there for the express purpose of discussing plans for a new luxury hotel there.’”
On April 3, 1963, the Post ran the update that Mr Howard Baron, general manager of Wynncor Inc, owners of the Hong Kong Hilton, “discussed the impact […] the new hotel will have on the economy of Hongkong”.
“Planning for the hotel began three years ago, Mr Baron said, when the owners purchased the old Murray Barracks site. Nearly one year ago Mr Baron set the opening date for April 15, 1963. The Hongkong Hilton, Mr Baron continued, would bring an additional 25,000 tourists into the colony each year, each spending an average of US$40 to US$50 a day.
“He said rooms would begin at US$10 while the average double room would be US$12 to US$14 a day.”
