/ Morning News/Guangzhou, August 30, 2022 -- Shanghai, August 27, 2022 -- intercontinental Hotels Group, one of the world's leading international hotel management companies, today announced the opening of its luxury boutique hotel brand, Kimpton Zhuhui Suzhou. This marks the official opening of 600 hotels in Greater China. This new milestone solidifies intercontinental Hotels Group's position as an industry leader in Greater China, demonstrates the group's confidence and determination to achieve long-term growth in the Chinese market, and is a testament to the Group's commitment to working together with its owners to achieve success.
Since the first Holiday Inn opened in Beijing in 1984, intercontinental Hotels Group has been rooted in China for 38 years. As one of the earliest international hotel groups to enter China, with the continuous development of China's tourism and hotel industry, intercontinental Hotels Group has always adhered to the local development strategy of "in China, for China", constantly increased its investment in China, and made remarkable achievements."Greater China is intercontinental Hotels Group's second largest market in the world. Although the repeated epidemic has had a certain impact on the tourism and hotel industry, the government's effective prevention and control and the release of a number of favorable policies, including the release of documents from The State Council, have also brought new development opportunities for international hotel groups." Jolyon Bulley, Chief executive of IHG Greater China, stressed: "With our global experience and local insights, we are confident about the group's future development in China and the potential and opportunities that the new era presents to the market."
By the middle of July, the RevPAR of intercontinental Hotels Group Greater China in early July has recovered to more than 80% of the level of the same period in 2019, among which, the RevPAR of Western and South China in early July has exceeded the level of the same period in 19 years, and the revpar of East and North China has also recovered to 60%-70% of the level in 19 years. Daniel Aylmer, IHG's managing director for Greater China, said: "Recovering leisure travel demand and local policy support will help us continue to expand. As of today, intercontinental Hotels Group has more than 1,000 hotels open or under construction in Greater China, making China the group's fastest growing market in the world. Our localized hotel operation model, diversified brand matrix and innovative digital technology have all become the foundation of our steady expansion in China. In addition, we sincerely thank the owners for their continued support and trust in the Group. As an important strategic partner of ours, the cooperation of equality and mutual trust with our owners is a solid foundation for us to work side by side and achieve mutual success."
As one of the largest franchisors in the global hotel industry, intercontinental Hotels Group is also the first international hotel group to introduce the franchise model into the Chinese market. In May 2016, intercontinental Hotels Group opened its Franchise Plus model for Holiday Inn hotels in China. A year and a half later, intercontinental Hotels Group extended its franchise plus model to Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, and reached 100 franchised hotels in China in less than three years. The Group is expected to reach the milestone of 200 franchised hotels opened in China by the end of 2022, becoming an important growth engine for its development in the country. At present, intercontinental Hotels Group's Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza Hotels have opened franchise operations in the Chinese market, among which the Crowne Plaza brand in the first half of 2022 signed 16 new projects in China. In order to better implement the mission of "kindness based and sincere hospitality", intercontinental Hotels Group has continued to increase its investment in service training, hotel design and digital technology in recent years. It has actively introduced new brands, accelerated digital transformation and upgrading and other measures to attract more consumers and strive to provide better performance for the owners. By the first half of 2022, intercontinental Hotels Group has 12 hotel brands in China, covering more than 200 cities in Greater China. < /p>In addition to the continuous development of new projects in the first and second tier cities, intercontinental Hotels Group also closely follows the national strategy and regional policies, focusing on the layout of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, western popular tourist cities, etc. Regent Shenzhen Bay and Holiday Inn Resort at Kanas Hemu were newly signed in the first half of this year. In the first half of 2022, IHG signed 53 new hotel contracts in China (approximately 11,100 rooms) and is expected to open more than 400 hotels in China in the future.
