Starwood Hotels and Resorts reaches out to China in a cultural and managerial relocation programme.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is relocating 20 members of its top management, including CEO Frits van Paasschen to their headquarters in China as part of a cultural immersion programme. Business will continue as usual, despite the 12-hour time difference. They will in China from 8 June to 11 July 2011.Melia Hotels International announces a similar program this year. The difference was that the hotel staff would go overseas, and not top management on the group level.The group believes that they are no longer an American company with an international presence, but rather an international entitiy headquartered in Whiteplains, New York. Subsequent immesion programmes will follow on an annual basis in places like Brazil, UAE, and India.