The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has confirmed their plans to double their presence in China in the next five year.
This follows 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.
IHG is currently the largest international hotel company in China with 131 hotels (45,940 rooms) open and a further 146 hotels (47,848 rooms) in the development pipeline.
InterContinental Hotels Group CEO, Andy Cosslett, said: “Our strong partnerships with hotel developers in Greater China enable us to develop high quality hotels in key locations.
By establishing ourselves as the first international hotel company in China with the Holiday Inn Lido in Beijing in 1984, we now have an extensive infrastructure with over 40,000 people across the country and a presence in over 40 major, secondary and tertiary cities. We will create a further 87,000 jobs across China over the next five years as we open the hotels in our pipeline”.
This year the IHG is opening over 30 hotels in China. This includes the seven InterContinentals, seven Crowne Plazas and the debut of Hotel Indigo in an outstanding location on the Bund in the centre of Shanghai.
Their upscale hotels in China have an average room count of 350, significantly larger than their other markets, with the vast majority being managed by IHG.
China has rebounded quickly from the industry downturn. At its first quarter trading update in May, IHG reported RevPAR growth for China of 22.2% and 27.1% in April.
