Tourism & Hospitality | Wednesday 13 May, 2015 2:09 pm |

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced four new signings across four brands last week, marking its continuous expansion across the Middle East:InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo. The signings will see the hotel company grow its presence by about 600 rooms across the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the next three to five years.

UAE
Together with leading real estate developers Diamond Developers, IHG will open the second Hotel Indigo in the UAE. Due to open in 2017, the 170-room Hotel Indigo Dubai The Sustainable City will be part of Dubai’s first sustainable integrated development. The hotel will be a Net Zero energy building, where 100 percent of its energy needs will be met by solar power. All waste water produced by the hotel will be recycled, and all material waste will be sorted at source and then recycled. A solar powered shuttle bus transportation service will be available to guests of the hotel, ensuring they are well-connected to Downtown Dubai.

This will be the third Hotel Indigo in the Middle East, joining the recently signed Hotel Indigo Dubai Business Bay and Hotel Indigo Riyadh King Abdullah Financial District in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is set to launch the brand into the Middle East next year.

Kuwait
IHG also further strengthened its 30-year relationship with the Bukhamseen Group in Kuwait with a multi-deal signing. Under the management agreement between IHG and Al Baraka General Trading and Contracting Company, owned by leading Kuwaiti conglomerate Bukhamseen Holding Group, IHG will manage a new 120-room InterContinental hotel and 232-room Crowne Plaza hotel in Farwaniya, Kuwait; whilst the existing Crowne Plaza Kuwait will be converted into a 336-room Holiday Inn.

In addition, a 20-year renewal was signed for the 189-room Holiday Inn Kuwait Salmiyah. The four agreements, together with Holiday Inn Cairo Maadi which opened last year, will see IHG manage a total of more than 1,000 rooms across three brands with the Bukhamseen family: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn.

Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia continues to be a key market for IHG and this is demonstrated by the signing of a franchise agreement for the first Holiday Inn in Tabuk with DUR Hospitality Company (formerly Saudi Hotels and Resort Co or SHARACO). The 83-room Holiday Inn Tabuk is the first hotel to be developed under the master development agreement (MDA) inked between IHG and DUR Hospitality Company last year. The company’s third Holiday Inn hotel in the development pipeline in Saudi Arabia, Holiday Inn Tabuk will join the 10 Holiday Inn hotels currently open in the country when it opens later this year.

Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG said: “We are growing stronger than ever in the Middle East and we are absolutely focused on continuing to strengthen our brands’ presence here. We are delighted to have announced some great additions to the IHG family in the region and this is an achievement made possible only with the support of our partners. We look forward to working closely with Diamond Developers, the Bukhamseen Group and DUR Hospitality Company to deliver great guest experiences in some truly excellent hotels when they open in the region.”

IHG has 75 properties open across five brands in the Middle East: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn,Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites, with an additional 25 hotels due to open over the next three to five years.

In the UAE, IHG has 18 hotels open across five brands: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites, with another 10 hotels in the development pipeline.

IHG is the largest international hotel company in Saudi Arabia with 25 properties (5,900 rooms) open across three brands: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. The company has eight further properties in the pipeline due to open in the next three to five years, including Hotel Indigo Riyadh King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) which will be the first Hotel Indigo property in the Middle East.

There are currently 11 Holiday Inn hotels in Saudi Arabia and two hotels in the development pipeline, including Holiday Inn Makkah: the largest Holiday Inn in the world with 1,238 rooms. Globally, there are nearly 1,200 Holiday Inn hotels (over 220,000 rooms) open around the world, with an additional 267 hotels (nearly 53,000 rooms) due to open in the next three to five years.

IHG currently has three hotels open across two brands in Kuwait: Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. The company has one hotel in the pipeline: InterContinental Kuwait Downtown, which will mark the launch of the InterContinental brand in the market.