Hotel giant IHG to introduce China-inspired brand to the world

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) said it will launch its China-inspired brand Hualuxe on the global market when the time is right, adding to a series of initiatives undertaken in the past two years to woo Chinese travellers.

The group, which owns brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express, opened its fifth Hualuxe hotel, and its 300th property in Greater China, in Zhangjiakou on Wednesday.

“It’s about [finding] the right owners of the property, the right asset in a key global city’s prime location. When we’ve got that, we’d like to announce,” Kenneth Macpherson, IHG’s chief executive for Greater China, said when asked by the South China Morning Post of plans to bring Hualuxe to the world. “It’s also important that when you bring a brand to the global market that it is well-established and works in its home market.”

IHG launched the Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts brand in February 2012, a name derived from the Chinese word hua, meaning “majestic China” plus luxe, referring to luxury. The first Hualuxe hotel was opened in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, three year later, and subsequently in Nanchang, Haikou and Kunming.

The push to promote the Hualuxe brand is one of several efforts by the UK hotel giant to woo Chinese consumers. In 2015 it launched a tailor-made service –“China Ready”– where Chinese travellers overseas are serviced by Mandarin-speaking employees at front desks. They can also use China UnionPay cards to settle their bill, watch Chinese television channels in their rooms, and order Chinese cuisine and beverages.

Illustrating the importance of the China market, revenue per available room – a key performance metric in the hotel industry – grew by 3.9 per cent in 2016 on the mainland, easily beating the 1.8 per cent growth globally for the group. In first-tier Chinese cities, RevPAR grew 6.3 per cent.