ttglive.com Interview Jennifer Fox, IHG
InterContinental New York Times Square opened last year
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Crossing continents with confidence
With 171 hotels and 60 more on the way, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is in expansion mode. Jennifer Fox, IHG chief operating officer for Europe, tells April Hutchinson why she thinks the sector is recovering
A
passionate traveller since she was young, Australian Jennifer Fox doesn’t
let the grass grow under her feet, having studied and worked all over the world. Catching up with her proves something of a tough game. Constantly on the go, she sandwiches this interview between trips to Tel Aviv and Dubai, and has two massive openings this year on her “patch” – one in Porto and another in Moscow. Added to that, the flagship InterContinental
London Park Lane has just had a touch of cos- metic work too.
The lobby has a new look and the bar, now called The Arch Bar, after the famed Wellington Arch it faces, has had an art deco redesign. And image is everything with the InterConti- nental hotels, which is one of the seven brands operated by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), of which Fox is chief operating officer for Europe. With the likes of The Savoy and neighbouring
Four Seasons Park Lane unveiling supercharged makeovers, competition is fierce in the capital and the “InterConti” has to stay on its toes, but it seems to be holding its own. “London Park Lane was one of the strongest hotels across IHG last year, with revpar up 16.4% last quarter,” Fox says. It appears to have been a
Fox: anticipates stronger recovery in 2011
two-way street, with outbound business from the UK putting
18% more into InterContinental Hotels & Re- sorts overseas hotels revenue in 2010 than in 2009 – a relief given the 7% dip in 2009. “There is such a propensity for Brits to travel, on leisure and business, that we are anticipating an even stronger recovery in 2011,” she adds.
Future proofing InterContinental Hotels & Resorts has 60,000 rooms in 60 countries and is in expansion mode, with 60 hotels in the pipeline – five in the Americas, 24 in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa and 31 in the Asia Pacific region. “We are focused on development at the moment. Last year we opened InterContinental New York Times Square, and six hotels in China, which is our real success story,” Fox says. As well as opening the 105-room InterConti- nental Porto Palacio das Cardosas in June and 203-room InterContinental Moscow Tverskaya this winter, a second London hotel is planned. As with all hoteliers, the rush will be on to get the InterContinental London Westminster ready for the 2012 Games, and Fox doesn’t rule out more top-end InterContinental hotels in the capital in the future, although nothing is confirmed. “Filling distribution gaps with InterContinental hotels is a priority in places we know are key to offering a rounded guest experience. It would be great to be in places such as Barcelona, Munich and have more in Paris and London,” says Fox. “The near future will also see us make our online presence even stronger, as 85% of our bookings across all the IHG brands involve some element of online activity,” she adds.
In touch with the iPad InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is also making a charge to reach customers via new channels. In April last year it equipped all of its concierges with iPads to share content with guests. It also launched a Concierge Insider Guides app last December which takes knowledge from all of the hotels’ concierges and makes it free to users. “Social media is a new phenomenon and is changing the landscape of how we do business and lead our lives,” Fox says. “Many of our hotels have a Facebook presence, and Charles Yap is our man in the know when it comes to social media.” Yap is IHG’s global brand communications
director and its new social media “guru”. Despite the focus on enhancing the brand’s online presence and the power of its Priority Club Rewards loyalty programme to attract guests, Fox says the trade is a vital distribution channel. “We would never put out an offer or a strategy without communicating it to the trade, and we run a number of special programmes for agents.” Fox says her favourite place is “the next one
I’m going to”, but when pushed gives a top five of Hong Kong, Paris, Sydney, London and New York. Next time she is in London she will no doubt
deserve one of the new gin-based cocktails that seem to be going down a storm in The Arch Bar.
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11.03.2011 09
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