05 August 2011

IHG Further Taps into Macao's Mid-Scale Hotel Market By Opening New Holiday Inn in Early 2012

World's largest Holiday Inn on Macao's Cotai Strip to open in "Asia's Las Vegas"

Shanghai, 5 August, 2011 - IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) recently signed a 1,224 room Holiday Inn franchise contract with Sands China Ltd. (Sands China), a majority-held subsidiary of global resort developer, Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS), on Cotai Strip in Macao, known as "Asia's Las Vegas".

When built, Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Strip will be the world's largest Holiday Inn. The hotel will be in the heart of the bustling Cotai Strip and part of Sands China's newest integrated resort - Sands Cotai Central. Scheduled to open in early 2012, this spectacular resort will include the second largest building in the world and the full resort will offer 6,000 additional hotel rooms to the area, along with a wide variety of gaming, dining, retail, entertainment and meeting facilities.

Cotai is a newly reclaimed area linking Coloane and Taipa islands in Macao.  LVS's Venetian Macao was the first hotel to debut on the area's Cotai Strip in 2007 and when completed the Strip will offer an exciting new line-up of world-class hotels, prestigious brands and sensational entertainment.

In the past five years, Macao's upper-upscale segment has made up nearly 90% of all newly opened hotels. This gives IHG a great opportunity to bring the affordable luxury of the mid-scale hotel segment to Macao.  IHG is already present in Macao with its well-established Holiday Inn Macau, which opened in 1993.

"This is a great addition to IHG's portfolio with Las Vegas Sands (LVS) on the first-ever InterContinental Alliance Resorts project, which includes the Venetian and The Palazzo Resorts in Las Vegas launched in May this year," said Keith Barr, chief executive officer for IHG Greater China. "We have established a foundation of mutual trust with LVS, which will lead to future relationships. We will continue and even accelerate our quality growth both globally and in Greater China by partnering with international large-scale and influential developers like LVS."

It's predicted that visitors to Macao will continue to grow in parallel with the wealth of the Chinese and attract other visitors from the Asia region. In 2010, Macao became the fourth most popular destination in the region for visitors after Mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Of those visitors, Mainland China accounts for over 50%, followed by Hong Kong at 29%. "The number of hotel guests in Macao has tripled over the past five years. As the hospitality industry continues to flourish alongside the gaming and tourism sectors, Macao - as Asia's emerging entertainment destination - is a hotel market with great potential," Barr added.

Edward Tracy, president and chief executive officer of Sands China Ltd said, "Sands China is pleased to introduce our newest integrated resort - Sands Cotai Central - to this fastest growing hospitality market in the world. Cotai Central will specifically provide both high-end branded products for premium guests seeking a luxury lifestyle, and accommodation for affordable luxury on the Cotai Strip. We are thrilled about working with IHG in Macao. Adding the Holiday Inn brand offers our customers more selection of different hotel experience. With IHG's international experience, brand value and vast sales infrastructure, it will certainly complement existing anchor Sands China properties to further increase and enhance Macau's reputation as the premier and most diversified tourism destination in the region."

The Holiday Inn brand family has recently completed a $1 billion worldwide programme that has seen the relaunch of over 3, 000 Holiday Inn properties over a three-year period. The relaunch programme has improved consistency and service levels, as well as establishing a more contemporary brand image. According to our research, the relaunch has also enhanced the hotel performance and improved guest satisfaction. The new Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Strip will open under the new Holiday Inn brand standard and will fit the needs of travelers who look for friendly service, comfort and great value.

Present in over 50 Chinese cities, IHG is the largest international hotel operator in the region with more than 150 hotels under five brands - InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts and Holiday Inn Express - and plans for nearly 150 more hotels in its development pipeline. As part of its rapid expansion in Greater China, one in four of the hotel rooms that IHG opens over the next five years will be in China. 

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For further information please contact:
Sharona Tao
+86 21 2893 3309
[email protected] 

Notes to Editors:

About IHG
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global company operating seven well-known 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®.  IHG also manages Priority Club® Rewards, the world’s first and largest hotel loyalty programme with 58 million members worldwide.

IHG is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms and IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns, through various subsidiaries, a portfolio of over 4,400 hotels and more than 652,000 guest rooms in 100 countries and territories around the world.

IHG has more than 1,200 hotels in its development pipeline and expects to recruit around 160,000 people 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 http://www.ihg.com/ and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at http://www.priorityclub.com/. For our latest news visit www.ihg.com/media, Twitter www.twitter.com/ihgplc or YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ihgplc 

About Sands China Ltd.
Sands China Ltd. (HKSE: 1928, Sands China or Company) is a subsidiary of global resort developer Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), and a listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.  Sands China is the largest operator of integrated resorts in Macao. The Company owns and operates THE VENETIAN® Macao-Resort-Hotel and THE PLAZATM Macao at COTAI STRIPTM development and the SANDS® Macao Hotel on the Macau peninsula. The Company's integrated resorts contain a diversified mix of leisure and business attractions and transportation operations, including large meeting and convention facilities, a wide range of restaurants, shopping malls, world-class entertainment at CotaiArenaTM and high-speed CotaiJetTM ferry service between Hong Kong and Macao. The Company is also developing new properties on Cotai, with its goal of transforming Cotai into Asia's premier entertainment and business destination.  For more information, please visit http://www.sandschinaltd.com/.

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