UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will open another upscale hotel in Taiwan in 2014, bringing its total number of hotels in the country to five, an IHG official said in a media briefing yesterday.
“With the number of outbound travelers reaching 22 million and inbound travelers reaching 6 million in 2011, Taiwan is a market with huge potential and very important to IHG,” vice president of sales and marketing Nick Barton said.
IHG is the largest hotel operator by number of rooms in the world and in Greater China.
In 2007, IHG set up its first hotel in Taiwan — the Holiday Inn Hotel in Taipei. That was followed by two Holiday Express Hotels in Taoyuan and Taichung, and the Crowne Plaza Hotel at E-Da World (義大世界) theme park in Greater Kaohsiung, making the company the biggest hotel operator in Taiwan, Barton said.
The company will establish another Crowne Plaza Hotel in Greater Tainan in 2014 and is in talks with potential local partners about future projects, Barton said.
He added that IHG planned to bring other high-end brands such as InterContinental Hotels and Hotel Indigo, as well as set up more price-friendly Holiday Inns in Taiwan.
IHG owns very little assets because its business model is focused on management and franchise, relying on the strength of local partnerships and relationships, Barton said.
IHG currently has more than 4,500 hotels in more than 100 countries, including 170 in the Greater China region.
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