Shangri-La’s Golden Circle loyalty program celebrates one year anniversary

HONG KONG – Shangri-La restructured its signature Golden Circle (GC) loyalty program a year ago to allow both staying and non-staying guests to earn and redeem Golden Circle Award Points (GC Award Points). Since the relaunch, the awards program has attracted more than 288,000 new members, bringing the total membership to over 2 million guests who have earned more than 635 million GC Award Points in the year. Golden Circle now includes over 500,000 members from mainland China.

“I believe it is safe to say that the success of the new Golden Circle program has exceeded our own expectations and we are particularly pleased to see so many of our Chinese guests joining,’ said Wee Kee Ng, director of corporate loyalty and partner marketing. “The feedback we have been given is that our guests appreciate that we recognise and reward them every time in every Shangri-La hotel, resort, Kerry or Traders hotel no matter whether they are staying in the hotel or not.’ To mark the anniversary of the enhanced Golden Circle, Shangri-La announced the launch of the new exclusive members’ magazine, Inner Circle , on 25 October 2011.

Inner Circle is an interactive multi-language magazine website, http://www.innercircle.shangri-la.com, which provides travel inspiration and insider knowledge on the ultimate Shangri-La destinations through travel features, interviews and news. Linked to a monthly e-newsletter, the site aims to provide a new means of regular communication with members of Shangri-La’s Golden Circle. With user commenting areas across the site and live feeds into social media platforms, Inner Circle allows members to share their travel experiences and recommendations.

Divided into six sections, the site provides the latest travel tips to inspire even the most seasoned globetrotters.

News: The news section provides regular communication with Golden Circle members, on topics such as new hotel openings, awards, information on the latest refurbishments, benefits and special announcements from Shangri-La hotels and resorts across the globe.

Destinations: Every month, the destination section provides readers with insights into new travel destinations — from exploring the jungle with orang-utans in Borneo to shopping for modern art in Shanghai.

Inspiration: The inspiration section seeks to provide readers with a new take on a well-known destination — focusing every issue on travel-related passions (such as gourmet experiences, adventure pursuits or health and wellness retreats) and seeking insider information from people in the know. Therefore, whether editors are quizzing the chef at Shangri-La Hotel, Paris about the ultimate gourmet experience or trekking with mountaineers in Guilin for a genuine adrenalin rush, this section seeks to inspire readers to broaden horizons and explore their interests.

Top 10: The Top 10 section is an area where readers can browse for their next adventure. Leveraging the imagery from all Shangri-La, Kerry and Traders hotels across the globe, every issue this section features a rundown of 10 amazing sites, sounds or experiences, providing a place for readers to “window shop” for their next Shangri-La destination.

Your Circle: Your Circle provides the interactive heart to the Inner Circlewebsite, where Golden Circle members can share their own travel stories.

Members are encouraged to submit their travel articles and photography to this area, and every month, two contributors (one English-language submission and one Chinese-language submission) are published on Inner Circle and win a complimentary two-night stay in an Executive Suite at one of the Shangri-La group’s hotels.

Heart Talk: The renowned travel writer Siew Hoon Yeoh is an integral part of Inner Circle with her travel column Heart Talk, where she shares her monthly musings in a one-woman mission to spread her love of travel as she treks across the globe.

Inner Circle is accessible to non-members on a “read only” basis. For commenting and feedback, readers are invited to join Golden Circle, which is free and open to anyone over the age of 18. To join, visit Golden Circle’s dedicated website, http://www.goldencircle.shangri-la.com , where members can also manage their profile, set their preferences, check and redeem points.