Chief operating officer – India, Middle East and Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Pascal Gauvin exclusively updated TTG on the company’s regional news and luxury trends.
TTG: Please share with our readers the latest news from IHG.
We continue to be confident in our long term growth in the Middle East (GCC, Levant, and Egypt) which represents over 30 per cent of our current system size (by number of rooms) in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Mid to long term indicators for the region, specifically the UAE and the KSA, are still strong and we are continuing with our plans for these priority markets.
We expect to grow by over 40 per cent (by number of rooms) over the next three to five years as we open the 24 hotels (9,616 rooms) in our Middle Eastern pipeline. In terms of future plans, we are increasing focus on our midscale brands. Research shows that branded midscale hotels comprise just over four per cent of the hotel market in the Middle East (including Egypt) so there’s plenty of opportunity to grow.
Having said that, we continue to receive interest, and drive InterContinental as a true luxury brand and Crowne Plaza as an upper-class brand for business and leisure travellers.
We have also launched Hotel indigo in the region with two hotels due to open in Dubai, the UAE and one in Riyadh, the KSA. We look forward to establishing this brand further in the Middle East.
TTG: What trends are you noticing across the GCC’s luxury tourism segment?
The segment continues to evolve across the GCC, a region renowned for its fondness for luxury. Guests today are looking for unique and bespoke travel experiences, because consumers in general now place a high value on personalisation. The ability to deliver a personalised experience is therefore crucial to our success in the luxury segment.
InterContinental focuses on delivering personalised experiences to enhance the stay for all our guests. With the value of bespoke and unique travel experiences growing in the GCC, it is also critical that we put effort into adapting our properties to reflect the culture found outside the hotel doors. To make sure we deliver these personalised luxury experiences, we continue to invest in our talent; introducing continuous training and development programmes that prepare our people for the best way of serving our guests.
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