InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) chief operating officer, India, Middle East and Africa Pascal Gauvin has said the demand for mid-market is increasing in this region.
In conversation with Hotelier Middle East, Gauvin said that the company is seeing a "large demand for the mid-scale market".
He added: "Although our pipeline is still luxury with InterContinental and upscale with Crowne Plaza, you can see the demand for Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites coming."
The need, Gauvin said, for diversification of brands is being seen in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
"The Saudi Arabia tourism boards are telling us they want to open for tourism; all that is music to our ears because we are the largest operator in Saudi Arabia with 24 hotels and we are growing really fast, especially in Makkah and Madinah," said Gauvin.
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He continued: "We always thought Holiday Inn is a fantastic brand because [Saudi Arabia has] a big domestic market. Not everybody can afford luxury brands, so we really want to bring Holiday Inn in all the secondary cities."
At the end of 2014, IHG signed a master development agreement with Dur Hospitality to franchise Holiday Inn & Suites-branded properties over the next five years in the country.
Holiday Inn already exists in cities such as Tabuk, Jeddah and Riyadh, and Gauvin added that it also has a signed contract in Jubail.
"The map of Saudi Arabia is becoming full of Holiday Inn, especially secondary cities. We have been in Riyadh and Jeddah for a long time. But that’s really great because that’s exactly what the brand is: not just catering for the domestic market but also the international market," added Gauvin.
Read the full interview with Pascal Gauvin in the August issue of Hotelier Middle East.
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