Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
02. Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
Gauvin is continuing to expand the group’s regional footprint, while staying profitable in a challenging business environment
In the last two years, Pascal Gauvin has climbed this list, slowly and surely. From seventh spot in 2014, to fifth last year, he’s now ranked the second-most powerful hotelier in the region. The growth has been remarkable — in the last year, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has opened a number of properties.
The InterContinental Residence Suites Doha was signed in November last year, along with the InterContinental Doha Festival City signed this May. Three Crowne Plaza hotels have been signed in the last year — one in Kuwait, another in Makkah, with a third in a currently confidential location. Holiday Inn, as part of its mid-market offering, has also been signed for Dubai Festival City.
The firm’s luxury brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, and under Gauvin’s command, it continues to grow its presence in the market.
Gauvin tells Hotelier: “We will open our first InterContinental in Fujairah next year. This is an especially important hotel as it is our first resort under the InterContinental brand in the Middle East.”
He continues: “Following the opening of InterContinental Dubai Marina in 2015 and the upcoming opening of InterContinental Abu Dhabi Grand Marina, close to 30% (by number of rooms) of our hotels across the region are InterContinental Hotels & Resorts’ properties.”
Gauvin has re-asserted the group’s commitment to its mid-scale offering across the region, bearing in mind developments such as Dubai Expo 2020 and Saudi Arabia’s national vision 2030. The operator is also continuing to grow its KSA footprint through its master development agreement with Dur Hospitality.
And while Gauvin admits this year was challenging, IHG is showing a good first quarter performance with strong brand momentum. While RevPAR declined by 1.1% in AMEA, good performance across much of the region offset 10.4% decline in the Middle East due to the ongoing impact of low oil prices.
He notes: “We have made a good start to the year, driving RevPAR up 1.5% against the background of weak oil markets and the earlier timing of Easter, which affected several of our markets.
“The industry has had a challenging start to this year and we’re operating in a different environment compared to 2015. Driving growth, developing our brands and delivering great guest experiences in such a dynamic region can only be done by a team of talented people.
“One of my greatest achievements has been developing an exceptional team both on the front-line in our hotels and in our corporate offices.”
He says that in order to support the opening of 25 hotels in the next three to five years, IHG is looking at adding another 8,000 jobs over the coming years. “This will take us up to well over 30,000 employees in this region — a growth of about 30%”.
Gauvin concludes: “We are confident in our long term growth in the Middle East (GCC, Levant, and Egypt), which represents over 30% of our current portfolio across Asia, Middle East and Africa with 78 hotels. And with 25 hotels in the pipeline, we will grow by over 40% (by number of rooms) over the next three to five years.”
By the numbers
4 Number of years in role
23 Number of years with company
78 Number of Middle East operating hotels
25 Number of Middle East pipeline hotels
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