IHG Plans To Double Greater China Presence In Five Years

Following the recent opening of two InterContinental hotels in Nanjing and Shanghai and the signing of a deal with HNA Hotels and Resorts last month for five hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group has announced that it plans to double its presence in Greater China to over 250 hotels over the next five years.

IHG is currently the largest international hotel company in Greater China, with 131 hotels (45,940 rooms) open and a further 146 hotels (47,848 rooms) in the development pipeline.

Andy Cosslett, the CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group CEO stated that by establishing themselves as the first international hotel company in China with the Holiday Inn Lido in Beijing in 1984, and they now have an extensive infrastructure with over 40,000 people across the country and a presence in over 40 major, secondary and tertiary cities. He added that IHG would create a further 87,000 jobs across China over the next five years as they open the hotels in their pipeline.

In 2010 IHG is opening over 30 hotels in Greater China. These include seven InterContinental, seven Crowne Plaza and the debut of Hotel Indigo on the Bund in the center of Shanghai.

According to IHG Greater China has rebounded quickly from the industry downturn. At its first quarter trading update in May 2010 IHG reported RevPAR growth for Greater China of 22.2% and 27.1% in April and they expect annual gross hotel revenues in excess of USD1 billion.