Conferencing Key for IHG

AIME Dinner Image left to right: Yvette Peverell IHG Director of Communications; Dean Jones IHG Director of Regional Sales; Jenny Morrell IHG Director of Commercial; Dimitri Karam GM Holiday Inn Warwick Farm; Annmarie Mansour IHG Director of Marketing 

Conferencing Key for IHG

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world's leading hotel companies has started the year on a conferencing high reporting a 7.4% lift in revenue and a 10.4% increase in confirmed business, year on year, off the back of a successful 2015 trading for Australasia.

Speaking at the annual IHG AIME Dinner at the George Ballroom in Melbourne on 23/2/16 with representatives from 20 hotels across eight countries and around 100 meeting planners in attendance, Jenny Morrell, Director of Commercial Australasia, attributed the positive results to three main elements - continued strong partnerships with PCOs and meeting planners; the IHG Business Rewards program launched in June 2015; and the first full year trading of InterContinental Sydney Double Bay.

"We continue to forge and maintain strong partnerships with the MICE community and enjoy successful working relationships.  Our Business Rewards program has been extremely well received - rewarding meetings and conference bookers and incentivising their loyalty with IHG; and a successful full trading year for the newest InterContinental hotel in our region in Double Bay has certainly driven demand and conversion - all of which adds up to a strong platform off which to launch into 2016," said Morrell. 

IHG Business Rewards, is a global business bookings programme offering rewards on all qualified business bookings for guest rooms, meetings and all events booked at IHG's 5,000 hotels worldwide.  Devised for bookers - members who book accommodation, meetings and events for others - IHG Business Rewards will reward members with IHG Rewards Club points for their B2B business, in a single global programme. This allows all IHG bookers to have a seamless experience when booking anywhere in the world at participating IHG hotels.

An impressive list of hotels set to join the IHG network will also add to the already diverse selection of venues across the hotel brand portfolio.  These include the completion of the largest meetings venue in South West Sydney at Holiday Inn Warwick Farm later in 2016; InterContinental Perth; Crowne Plaza Christchurch; and Crowne Plaza Hobart opening in 2017 and further down the track, Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour in 2019.  

IHG is also set to launch the Holiday Inn Express brand in Australia with the first opening in Sydney's Macquarie Park precinct in April 2016.  Further hotels are slated for Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne and are part of 15-hotel agreement by 2025 with Proinvest Group.  The select service hotel brand will work well with conference delegates, said Morrell: "The Holiday Inn Express hotels are a great addition to our network and will provide an exceptional convention hotel option for conference bookers.  They are all ideally located in CBDs or in business precincts where conferencing venues are situated."

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