IHG: Holiday Inn owner braces for 50 per cent Middle East hit
Holiday Inn owner IHG expects to see a 50 per cent hit to its operations in the Middle East, as the Iran war wreaks havoc on global travel.
Intercontinental Hotels Group said revenue per available room in the Middle East slumped to a 26 per cent year-on-year fall in March, reversing the nine per cent growth seen in January and February.
The Iran war has stifled tourism to the Middle East and caused a worldwide jet fuel shortage which has left airlines scrambling to avoid hiking prices and cancelling flights.
The FTSE 100 hotelier said revenue has dragged further so far in the second quarter, and expects to see a 50 per cent sales decline in the Middle East for the period.
But the firm’s share price jumped by more than three per cent on Thursday’s market open, to 150p, leaving the stock up eight per cent in the year to date.
IHG owns affordable hotel chain Holiday Inn, which operates more than a thousand branches worldwide, as well as a number of luxury brands including Kimpton Hotels.
Conflict to affect wider region
The Iran war is beginning to have knock-on effects on the wider Europe, Middle East and Africa region, IHG said, where it saw revenue fall seven per cent in April.
This comes despite initial resilience in the region, where revenue per room jumped by six per cent in the first three months of the year.
But IHG said it will “more than” offset the impact of “the Middle East conflict and some wider disruption to international travel flows” by better-than expected growth in other regions.
Disruption to travel routes between the UK and the Middle East have impacted hotel firms in London, with recent data suggesting a drop-off in occupancy caused by fewer visitors from the region.
IHG ‘confident’ of growth
IHG operates 1,478 hotels and 287,602 rooms in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, according to its most recent full-year accounts.
The hotelier saw global revenue jump by 4.4 per cent in the first three months of this year, driven by 5.7 per cent growth in Greater China.
IHG opened 82 new properties in this period and now operates more than 7,000 hotels, with 163 more in the pipeline.
The hotel firm said it is “confident” it will see growth in the coming year despite the drop-off in Middle East sales.
Chief executive Elie Maalouf said: “Our business model is strategically diversified and resilient in capturing demand across geographies, chain scales and the different stay occasions of business, leisure and groups travel, as well as being heavily weighted to domestic and intra-regional travel.”