Monday, 15 October 2007：The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has experienced strong growth this year with over 80 hotels signing onto the group in the past year.
The group is in charge of more than 120 hotels and 40,000 rooms across the Asia Pacific region with over 66 per cent of these signings for new-build hotels with the remainder being conversions of existing properties. Four of the brands, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express have performed exceptionally well.
The growth is particularly robust in Japan, India and China with almost 70 per cent of the hotels based in these areas. This move is in tune with IHG’s global strategy of constructing the strongest operating system, with greater emphasis put on the largest markets where scale really counts.
IHG will be making their debut at some strategic locations such as the Maldives, Bangalore, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Acting chief executive of IHG Asia Pacific, Tony South said that IHG has been expanding its support capacity in the key regional locations.
“As we continue to grow our network of hotels across the region, we need to put equal emphasis on ensuring the long-term success of the hotels, which in turn ensures better returns for our owners.
“As a result, we have doubled the number of employees based in our corporate offices in Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, New Delhi and Tokyo during the past two years. This includes beefing up critical functions such as talent development, hotel openings, design and engineering, brand management, sales and revenue management,” South said.
There are 34 luxury InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in the Asia Pacific region with 24 hotels in development. A partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA) saw two co-branded hotels launched in April this year in Tokyo, Japan. Two additional ANA InterContinental resorts will be opened in Okinawa in the next two years.
