IHG Lines Up Large Asia/Pac Expansion

Inter Continental Hotels Group today announced record company growth in the Asia/Pacific region this year, with 80 hotels signed in the past 12 months and brands entering several markets in which they previously had no presence. Of the 80 hotels signed in the last year, more than two-thirds will be in China, Japan and India, according to IHG. About the same percentage will be new construction, while the rest will be conversions of existing properties. Under the development plan, IHG`s upscale brands InterContinental Hotels & Resorts and Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts will make their debuts in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia; Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Hangzhou and Qingdao, China. Crowne Plaza also will launch six hotels in Japan. Midprice Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, meanwhile, is focusing on its growth in India, and is adding hotels in Maldives, Bangalore and Pattaya, Thailand. The Holiday Inn Express brand launched a franchising program in China this year, and the brand also plans to introduce hotels in Singapore and Bangkok. IHG also reports growing its offices in the Asia/Pacific region. It has introduced a training academy in Shanghai and has doubled the headcount at its corporate offices in Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore, New Delhi and Tokyo in the past two years.