InterContinental looks to expand in Libya by 2017

InterContinental Hotels Group has announced that it is “actively pursuing” opportunities in Libya, with one hotel already in the pipeline.

The group currently has an unbranded hotel in the country, but Leanne Harwood, vice president commercial, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG, told Hotelier Middle East that the group is looking for opportunities in Libya, with a plan to open around 2017, when the country is more economically and politically secure.

She said: “We are absolutely actively pursuing opportunities in Libya because ultimately, like Bahrain, in the long term – once the country has got its infrastructure in a better place – airports, roads etc., then we’d like to be there and help Libya grow into a new country as they push forward. It really is a country of opportunity.”

Harwood added: “I don’t know when our first property will open there, but I’d suggest that in the next five years you’d see something come into fruition, but who knows? It all depends on how fast they move with the infrastructure.”

IHG currently manages the Al Waddan Hotel Tripoli, which dates back to the 1930s, and signed a management contract in 2006 for InterContinental Tripoli, which was put on hold due to the unrest.