IHG has outlined ambitious growth plans for China, India, and the Middle East. The company is responding to favorable socioeconomic trends in new and emerging markets, including rapidly growing and shifting populations, heavy investment in infrastructure, and significant GDP growth. Unprecedented increases in domestic and international leisure travel, as well as business trips, are expected in the next decade and beyond.
IHG believes the Chinese hotel room market will overtake the U.S., which is currently the world’s largest, in 2025 and become twice the current U.S. size by 2039. In the Middle East, GDP is outpacing the rest of the world and offers superb revPAR opportunities, according to IHG, which aims to open 38 new hotels across the region in the next four to five years. In India, the company will open 150 new hotels by 2020.
