Marriott International issued an apology to the Chinese government this morning and is taking other steps to quell a furor after a loyalty program email listed Tibet and other Chinese territories as separate countries.
News outlets are reporting that China is investigating the U.S. hotel giant for possible violation of national cybersecurity and advertising laws after a Mandarin-language questionnaire asked rewards program members for their country of residence, listing Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as options. Social media, including the Communist Youth League’s official Weibo account, stoked outrage, including calls to boycott Marriott.
According to a statement by Marriott CEO and President Arne Sorenson, the company took down the survey, made the “necessary corrections” and reviewed websites and apps to ensure the wording was correct. Marriott said it complied with the Chinese government’s request to take down its Chinese websites and apps to conduct a review and audit. The company apologized on Twitter as well.
“Upon completion of a full investigation into how both incidents happened, we will be taking the necessary disciplinary action with respect to the individuals involved, which could include termination, changing our approval and review procedures for online content, reviewing our customer feedback channels, and enhancing training to ensure these situations don’t happen again,” Sorenson said in a statement. “We are also working closely and co-operating with the relevant government authorities in China.”
China claims sovereignty over the four territories; according to the South China Morning Post, the government has punished similar situations, including fining a local advertising agency 1 million yuan (US$153,000) for publishing what it what it said was an inaccurate map that “damaged the country’s dignity.”
As a company, we take very seriously the privilege and opportunity we have to serve guests in countries around the world,” Sorenson’s statement read. “We will learn from this experience, make changes to ensure errors like this don’t happen again, and continue to focus on making sure our Chinese guests feel respected.”
Marriott has more than 100 hotels in China; on Monday it announced that a St. Regis would be developed in Hong Kong.