Keith Barr, Chief Executive Officer, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said:
“Trading improved significantly during the first half of 2021, with travel demand returning strongly as vaccines roll out,
restrictions ease, and economic activity rebuilds. It has been great to see our teams welcome more and more guests
back into our hotels, with domestic leisure bookings leading the way, particularly in the US and China. Essential business
travel was a key element of our resilience throughout the pandemic, and we are now seeing more group activity and
corporate bookings start to come back. These trends and the momentum in the business have continued in recent
weeks, including in EMEAA where a lifting of travel restrictions in some markets is also now driving improvements in
demand. With occupancy and rate continuing to improve, nearly 50% of our hotels achieved RevPAR above 2019 levels
in July.
As more development activity returns to the industry, the strength of IHG’s brand portfolio and the power of our scale,
systems and platforms for owners is being clearly recognised. We opened 132 hotels in the half and signed 203, both
sizeable increases on last year. Our focus on the quality of our estate remains extremely high, and we’re making rapid
progress with the review of our Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza portfolios to ensure the consistency of these leading
brands and that they are well positioned for future growth. With the actions we are taking, and a pipeline that represents
more than 30% of our current system size, we expect to return quickly to an industry-leading level of net rooms growth.
We’re also excited to announce that we’ll soon be launching a new Luxury & Lifestyle collection brand to provide further
choice for guests and owners. Over the last four years we’ve added five new brands to create a portfolio of 16, each
targeting a specific segment and enhancing our market reach. The addition of a collection brand will provide high quality
independent hotels access to the many benefits of IHG’s system, whilst retaining a property’s distinctive identity. There
are currently around 1.5 million independently run rooms in the market segments we are targeting, and we expect the
collection to attract more than 100 hotels within 10 years.The actions we have taken during the last 18 months position us well to exceed our pre-pandemic level of growth and
profitability. While there is a risk of trading volatility in the balance of the year, and discretionary business trips, group
bookings and international travel will take time to fully recover, we are confident in the strength of IHG’s future prospects.”
https://www.ihgplc.com/-/media/ihg/files/results/2021/interims-2021/ihg-sea-hy-2021.pdf