The FINANCIAL — InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world’s leading global hotel companies, announced four new hotel signings as well as six new hotel openings across the GCC in 2017 at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, UAE.
The announcements are an indication of IHG’s continued expansion across the MEA region in multiple segments, including luxury, business, family, and lifestyle.
IHG’s four new hotel signings in the Middle East and Africa are: Crowne Plaza Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, InterContinental Doha Festival City and Staybridge Suites Lusail in Doha, Qatar and the Holiday Inn Mutare in Zimbabwe.
In addition, IHG is also opening six new hotels in the MEA region in 2017. The new hotels include Crowne Plaza® Muscat OCEC in Oman, InterContinental Fujairah Resort in the UAE, Holiday Inn® Doha – The Business Park in Qatar, Holiday Inn Algiers Cheraga Tower in Algeria, as well as two in Saudi Arabia: Staybridge Suites Jeddah Alandalus Mall, and the Crowne Plaza Riyadh – ITCC.
This acceleration is indicative of IHG’s growth plans and operations in the Middle East. The global hospitality leader continues to focus on key cities across the region, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha and Cairo – putting the right brands in the right locations according to demand.
Speaking about IHG’s diverse and ever-growing footprint, Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer – India, Middle East, Africa (IMEA), IHG, explained: “While the increased focus on expanding our midscale brands – announced in 2016 – has become more pronounced with increasing demand for our Holiday Inn brand family, we have also begun exploring opportunities to expand within the emerging luxury/lifestyle segment in the region.”
We know the lifestyle segment is the fast growing in the hotel industry; we’ve seen it ourselves through the successful launch of our Hotel Indigo brand here in AMEA, specifically in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We’re confident there is strong growth potential in the region for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants brands and we’re looking forward to building on the momentum already established here with Hotel Indigo,” Gauvin continued.
The first global boutique hotel brand in the world, Hotel Indigo® has gone from strength to strength since its launch into the Middle East region. IHG introduced the Hotel Indigo brand in in Riyadh in 2012 with the Hotel Indigo Riyadh King Abdullah Financial District. This was then followed by Dubai, where the Hotel Indigo Dubai Business Bay was announced in 2014, as well as the Hotel Indigo Dubai – The Sustainable City. The latter will be a Net Zero energy building, where 100% of its energy needs will be met by solar power.
This year Hotel Indigo launched in Singapore with Holiday Indigo Singapore Katong and will see the opening of Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak, the first Hotel Indigo property to open in a resort location globally in the next few months.
Rajit Sukumaran, Chief Development Officer – Asia, Middle East, Africa (AMEA), IHG explained: “The Middle East presents several opportunities across our brand portfolio. While we have great demand for our mid-scale offering in the current economic environment, we are also seeing interest in our extended-stay brand, Staybridge Suites, in response to the evolution of the region’s major cities into budding business hubs. We’re also actively looking for strategic partners to introduce Kimpton Hotels and restaurants to the region as we believe this is the right time accelerate the growth of our luxury/lifestyle brand portfolio. InterContinental hotels and Resorts continues to drive interest across the region, as one of the landmarks of luxury for the region.”
IHG was the first international hotel company to enter the Middle East with the opening of InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut in Lebanon in 1961, followed by the opening of InterContinental Jordan in 1963 by the Late King Hussein in 2015, and InterContinental Riyadh in 1975. Currently, IHG is set to open its first resort within this brand umbrella with InterContinental Fujairah Resort later this year.
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