25 November 2010

InterContinental Hotels Group's CEO Returns Home To Open Holiday Inn Manchester MediaCityUK

Today the CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Andy Cosslett, returned to his home town of Manchester to open the new Holiday Inn Manchester MediaCityUK.

The 218 bedroom hotel, owned and operated by Peel Leisure, is in the heart of MediaCityUK in Salford Quays.  The hotel has good transport links.  It's a twenty minute drive from Manchester Airport. The new waterside tram station and link road with the M602 also make it easy to reach.

The hotel has a gym and three meeting rooms which can accommodate up to 40 people. Guests can choose to dine in The Green Room Restaurant which serves British food, or the Hub Bar for a light meal.

MediaCityUK, a £650million Peel Media development, is a vibrant waterside community for workers, residents, students and visitors. The first phase of the development is 36 acres (roughly the size of 18 football pitches) and includes office space, a state-of-the art studio building, shops, restaurants, apartments, a five-acre public piazza, and the Holiday Inn.

From 2011, the BBC is relocating more than 2,300 staff to MediaCityUK. BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live, Children's Sport, Learning, and Future Media and Technology will move from London to MediaCityUK in addition to all the BBC's existing Manchester operations.

Andy Cosslett, IHG's CEO, said: "I grew up in Manchester.  I've lived, studied and worked here.  In more recent years I've watched from afar and it's great to see how the area has been transformed.  We're looking for 3,000 talented people to work in our UK hotels over the next two to three years and the new Holiday Inn Manchester MediaCityUK will contribute to that number by creating around 70 local jobs, stimulating growth in and around Salford Quays."

Peter de la Perrelle, director, Peel Leisure said: "It's great to have the Holiday Inn Manchester MediaCityUK officially opened by Andy Cosslett. The hotel is at the heart of this unique and exciting development, presenting us with an opportunity to provide first class service to the guests who will be visiting and working in MediaCityUK."

Holiday Inn at Manchester MediaCityUK joins four existing Holiday Inn and three Holiday Inn Express hotels in Manchester. There is another Holiday Inn Express in the pipeline at MEN Arena in the city centre.

Holiday Inn is undergoing the biggest relaunch in the hospitality industry with a £650 million investment across more than 3,300 hotels and 430,000 rooms worldwide. The relaunch means that guests can expect a consistently good experience at all our hotels. The relaunch is 97% complete in the UK with just 10 hotels still to relaunch.

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels are in 100 countries worldwide from Scotland to Saudi Arabia.  Holiday Inn is the largest full service hotel brand in the UK with 122 Holiday Inn and 110 Holiday Inn Express hotels. To find out more about the changes happening at Holiday Inn hotels around the world, please visit www.holidayinn.com.

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Alex Dehnert
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Notes to Editors:

InterContinental Hotels Group
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms.  IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns, through various subsidiaries, over 4,500 hotels and more than 650,000 guest rooms in 100 countries and territories around the world.  The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club Rewards with 52 million members worldwide.

IHG has over 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline, which we expect to create 160,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media

Peel Media
MediaCityUK is being developed and managed by Peel Media, a division of the Peel Group, one of the leading property and transport companies in the UK, with an asset value in excess of £6 billion. Among a portfolio of enterprises, Peel owns the Trafford Centre, which attracts 36 million visitors a year; the ports of Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow; three airports; and retail parks and hotels around the country.  Peel also has substantial shareholdings in Pinewood Studios and British Coal.

Peel Media's investment in Phase 1 of MediaCityUK is in the region of £650 million.  It will include new headquarters for BBC North and the University of Salford.

www.mediacityuk.co.uk

Peel Leisure
Peel Leisure is developing a portfolio of hotels on the Group's current and future land development schemes, building on the Peel Group's existing tenanted estate and focusing on franchise agreements with the major international hotel brands as partners.

Peel Leisure is a division of The Peel Group

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