InterContinental continues global strategy with multiple hotel openings
Rania Deimezi, Travel Daily News, 9/20/2007
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced multiple openings this month across three of its brands – InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts. In support of the group's current global strategy, which targets an organic growth of 50-60,000 hotel rooms by 2008, the latest properties to join IHG's portfolio have been designed to cater for the diversifying needs of both leisure and business travellers in the key destinations.
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts continues global strategy in luxury hotels
IHG has signed a franchise agreement with Grand Hotel Stockholm, which will see the property become an InterContinental, effective January 1st 2008. The Grand Hotel Stockholm has been a luxury hotel for 133 years and has hosted an impressive list of Nobel Prize laureates, royalty, heads of state and artists.
A franchise agreement has also been signed with 'Hotel am Zwinger Betriebsgesellschaft mbH' to open a stylish new InterContinental hotel in Dresden, Germany. The hotel will open in 2008.
IHG is set to launch its first InterContinental hotel on New Zealand's South Island after signing a management agreement with leading property developer, Melview Developments Limited, to establish the brand in Queenstown. The 221-room InterContinental Queenstown is due for completion in 2010. It will join Crowne Plaza Queenstown – situated in central Queenstown – as the second hotel managed by IHG in the country's adventure capital, and will complement InterContinental Wellington to become IHG's second InterContinental hotel in New Zealand.
These announcements continue what has been a period of unprecedented growth for the InterContinental brand. This includes the recent opening of flagship properties – InterContinental Boston and InterContinental London Park Lane, as well as IHG's first InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles. The brand will continue its global expansion throughout 2007, including three new openings planned in China, as well as the opening of InterContinental Dubai Festival City.Crowne Plaza brand offers two further 'places to meet'
In Portugal, IHG has signed a franchise agreement with the Cerro Grande investment group for the new Crowne Plaza Albufeira–Algarve. The new-build hotel will open in the third quarter of 2008 and comprises 113 guest rooms and 50 villas.
In the UK, IHG and Crimson Hotels announced the opening of the Crowne Plaza Gatwick-Crawley, further strengthening IHG's portfolio of hotels at Gatwick Airport when it opens in October 2007. The property is currently undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment - this is in addition to an £8 million investment made in the hotel in 2005 - to bring it in line with the facilities and exacting high standards of the Crowne Plaza brand.Holiday Inn builds presence in Russia
IHG has signed a management agreement for a Holiday Inn in Siberia's capital, Novosibirsk, in partnership with Clover Group, a Moscow-based property development holding company. The management contract between IHG and Clover Group was signed in Moscow for a 200-bedroom Holiday Inn, which is scheduled to open in December 2009. This is the first hotel to be signed as part of a Multiple Development Agreement that was entered into between the two parties in December 2006 and which will see IHG further develop its hotel brands in Russia.