Intercontinental hotels Group PLC (ADR) (NYSE:IHG) has unveiled its plan to place more focus on China’s local tourism industry.
The hospitality giant has identified the huge market available within China because of its high population nature. Thus the need to promote tourism within the country in an effort to capture this gap.
China is already the highest populated country. This fact has attracted many foreign companies to venture within its borders in an attempt to cash in on the demography-influenced probabilities.
Another reason for intercontinental hotels to consider local tourism is because of the large number of Chinese citizens who are taking up tourism in other countries. Therefore tourism is an admired hobby by most of the country’s citizens. Unfortunately the local tourism sector is not so active. Perhaps because of the lack of sufficient tourism amenities to attract local tourism.
Travels outside the countries are on the rise and this means a lot of the country’s revenue is being spent outside the country. Boosting local tourism will also encourage spending within the country which would be instrumental in encouraging the company which has recently slowed. Another reason is the fact that local tourism would lead to development of more luxury amenities. This would also be instrumental in attracting foreign tourists.
The lucrative hotel chain recently launched Hualuxe hotels in China. The new venture will represent the intercontinental hotels as the chain’s brand in the Chinese hotel industry. The name itself is a derivative of two words. Hua which means “Majestic China,” and luxe which represents the luxurious nature of the whole experience.
According to market research, the hotel industry revenue went up by 1.4% in the first quarter of 2015. The UK-based hotel chain was not worried about the unfavorable economic conditions in the country.
One of the hotel chain’s chief executives by the name Richard Solomons said that despite the market conditions, they are optimistic that the venture will perform well. He also said that now is a good time to start so that when the economy recovers, they will be ready to reap the benefits.
