SHANGHAI, China, June 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) announced today the signing of a management contract to operate three hotels and over 800 rooms in Changzhou, a key Eastern China city near Shanghai. Consisting of one Crowne Plaza hotel and two Holiday Inn Express hotels within an integrated city centre commercial complex, the three hotels will be developed by Top Spring Group, a leading Hong Kong retail investment and real estate developer. Top Spring Group has also signed a strategic partnership with IHG, giving IHG preferential branding and management rights to all of Top Spring’s upcoming hotel developments across China.
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The three hotels will be part of the Landmark International Commercial Center, located in the centre of Changzhou. The integrated complex with have over 580,000 square metres of retail outlets, offices, exhibition space, entertainment facilities, residences and hotels. The hotels to be managed by IHG are:
Holiday Inn Express City Center Changzhou: 208 rooms, scheduled to open by end of 2008 Crowne Plaza Changzhou: 288 rooms, scheduled to open in 2011. Holiday Inn Express Landmark Changzhou: 308 rooms, scheduled to open in 2011.
“Top Spring Group has significant knowledge and expertise in China’s real estate market and we are pleased to partner with them as they grow their hotel portfolio across China,” said Mr. Tony South, acting chief executive, IHG Asia Pacific. “This strategic multi-brand, multi-property partnership, once again demonstrates that IHG is the partner of choice for hotel developers and owners in China.”
Mr. Wong Chun Hong, chairman and managing director of Top Spring Group, said, “We recognize the growing needs of hotel industry in Changzhou and other parts of China, and we are delighted to be partnering with IHG, the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, to launch the new hotels in Landmark International Commercial Centre. We are confident that IHG’s world-recognized hotel brands and established operating systems will help our hotels provide the highest quality of products and services to our guests.”
Changzhou is a key tourism destination, attracting more than 20 million tourists with tourism revenues of RMB 400 million in 2006. It is also a significant manufacturing base, home to industrial parks that house various international and domestic companies.
About IHG
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) of the United Kingdom (LON: IHG, NYSE: IHG (ADRs)) is the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 3,700 hotels and more than 558,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. IHG owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental(R) Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza(R) Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn(R) Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express(R), Staybridge Suites(R), Candlewood Suites(R) and Hotel Indigo(R), and also manages the world’s largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club(R) Rewards with over 33 million members worldwide.
The company pioneered the travel industry’s first collaborative response to environmental issues as founder of the International Hotels and Environment Initiative (IHEI). The IHEI formed the foundations of the Tourism Partnership launched by the International Business Leaders Forum in 2004, of which IHG is still a member today. The environment and local communities remain at the heart of IHG’s global corporate responsibility focus.
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 the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at http://www.ihg.com/media .
About Top Spring Group
Top Spring Group is based in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Its major businesses are retail investment and real estate development in China, including the sourcing and acquiring of sites to build shopping malls to be anchored by Wal-Mart hypermarkets in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing regions. Its major projects include: residential projects in Beijing and Shenzhen; three commercial real estate projects for Wal-Mart shopping centres under construction and six more under developments, and a Holiday Inn hotel in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province under construction. Top Spring Group has established joint venture and other strategic relationships with leading multinational and Chinese companies, including Shenzhen International Trust and Investment Company for real estate development; a joint venture with a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Group of Hong Kong as franchisee to sell Warner Brothers’ consumer products in China; and a joint venture partnership with China Aviation Group to run a 20-outlet Rainbow Department Store chain across China.
