Hotel Growth Driven By Leisure Travellers – IHG

Senior IHG executive says downturn has encouraged more people to take holidays.

The recession has been a surprising key driver of regional growth in the hospitality sector, said a key regional executive at Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG).

“There is growth in the leisure travel sector as opposed to business travel,” said Thomas Rowntree, commercial vice president, Middle East and Africa.

“The recession has brought about assessment of the importance of work/life balance and taught people that investing in yourself is very important, as you never know what might happen.”

Rowntree added that the recession is also a time when it’s important to keep up marketing activities to key audiences because it’s an era when consumers evolve their behaviour and are most open to changing their traditional purchasing patterns.

“There is growth in the lower-end brands. Air Arabia has unlocked a whole new type of travel – it’s called the Easy Jet effect,” said Rowntree.

He added that another imminent growth driver for the regional travel industry will be Saudi Arabia’s population.

“75 per cent of the country’s population is below 24-years-old and the most frequent travellers in the GCC fall into the 21-24-years-old age group. We are expecting to see a big wave of travellers across the region in the medium-term.”