InterContinental identifies conferencing growth
The hotel group looks forward to years of growing conferencing-related business, boosted by Brussels policy makers, InterContinental said on Thursday.
"This hotel was built to house conferences," said InterContinental's EMEA Managing Director Richard Hartman on the day of the hotel's gala opening last week, "...it's the most profitable part of the hotel business."
"Brussels knows that they need to feed business to the ten accession countries," adds the InterContinental's Alex Kloszewski. "They need our economies to succeed. Congresses will be fed to Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.
In April, a four-day World Economic Forum will be held in Warsaw on the Davos model. Hoteliers hope the event, expected to be worth one million euros to the city's hospitality industry, will raise Warsaw's profile as a well-equipped, organised and safe city in which to hold a conference.
For InterContinental, these are testing times. In October 2002, a process began under which InterContinental Hotels Group plc was separated from the retail business of its parent company, Six Continents plc. This separation process was completed just under a year ago with InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG) becoming a distinct company listed in the UK and the USA.
"Any new company must prove itself," says Hartman. "We are eleven months old. On April 15 of last year we had our own stock. During the next five years we must show our shareholders, employees and partners that we are credible."
Although the InterContinental's Warsaw project was planned before the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers in 2001, the company's management have no regrets about their city center, high-rise architecture. Public fears that Warsaw is next on the list of Al Qaeda targets are also not a major concern. "The May bombings in Madrid caused temporary disruptions to the hotels in Spain," says Hartman.
The arrival of low-fare airline flights is also set to act as a boost to the sector, allowing people to travel "because they want to and can afford to not because they have to" in the words of Hartman. Though low-fare travellers may not be five-star hotel customers, Hartman says that the boost in tourism numbers to Poland brought by low fares will stimulate foreign investment and therefore visits by businesspeople to InterContinental's Warsaw hotel.
"This hotel was built to house conferences," said InterContinental's EMEA Managing Director Richard Hartman on the day of the hotel's gala opening last week, "...it's the most profitable part of the hotel business."
"Brussels knows that they need to feed business to the ten accession countries," adds the InterContinental's Alex Kloszewski. "They need our economies to succeed. Congresses will be fed to Prague, Budapest and Warsaw.
In April, a four-day World Economic Forum will be held in Warsaw on the Davos model. Hoteliers hope the event, expected to be worth one million euros to the city's hospitality industry, will raise Warsaw's profile as a well-equipped, organised and safe city in which to hold a conference.
For InterContinental, these are testing times. In October 2002, a process began under which InterContinental Hotels Group plc was separated from the retail business of its parent company, Six Continents plc. This separation process was completed just under a year ago with InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG) becoming a distinct company listed in the UK and the USA.
"Any new company must prove itself," says Hartman. "We are eleven months old. On April 15 of last year we had our own stock. During the next five years we must show our shareholders, employees and partners that we are credible."
Although the InterContinental's Warsaw project was planned before the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers in 2001, the company's management have no regrets about their city center, high-rise architecture. Public fears that Warsaw is next on the list of Al Qaeda targets are also not a major concern. "The May bombings in Madrid caused temporary disruptions to the hotels in Spain," says Hartman.
The arrival of low-fare airline flights is also set to act as a boost to the sector, allowing people to travel "because they want to and can afford to not because they have to" in the words of Hartman. Though low-fare travellers may not be five-star hotel customers, Hartman says that the boost in tourism numbers to Poland brought by low fares will stimulate foreign investment and therefore visits by businesspeople to InterContinental's Warsaw hotel.
