World’s Largest Holiday Inn to be in Macau

InterContinental Hotels Group has signed a 1,224 room Holiday Inn franchise contract with Sands China.

When built, the Holiday Inn Macau Cotai Strip will be the world's largest Holiday Inn. The hotel will be in the heart of the bustling Cotai Strip and part of Sands China's newest integrated resort - Sands Cotai Central.

Scheduled to open in early 2012, the resort will include the second largest building in the world and the full IR will offer 6,000 additional hotel rooms to the area, along with a wide variety of gaming, dining, retail, entertainment and meeting facilities.

"This is a great addition to IHG's portfolio with Las Vegas Sands (LVS) on the first-ever InterContinental Alliance Resorts project, which includes the Venetian and The Palazzo Resorts in Las Vegas launched in May this year," said Keith Barr, chief executive officer for IHG Greater China. "We have established a foundation of mutual trust with LVS, which will lead to future relationships. We will continue and even accelerate our quality growth both globally and in Greater China by partnering with international large-scale and influential developers like LVS."

It's predicted that visitors to Macau will continue to grow in parallel with the wealth of the Chinese and attract other visitors from the Asia region. In 2010, Macau became the fourth most popular destination in the region for visitors after Mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Of those visitors, Mainland China accounts for over 50%, followed by Hong Kong at 29%.

"The number of hotel guests in Macau has tripled over the past five years. As the hospitality industry continues to flourish alongside the gaming and tourism sectors, Macau - as Asia's emerging entertainment destination - is an hotel market with great potential," Barr added.

IHG already operates the Holiday Inn Macau, which opened in 1993.

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