Hotel chain to sell off European properties
Intercontinental Hotels will put European hotels worth £600 million on the market after yesterday confirming the sale of its Paris hotel for £214 million.
The company said a future sell-off of European properties will leave it with £1 billion worth of assets in strategic cities such as London, New York and Hong Kong.
Finance director Richard Solomons, quoted in the Financial Times, said a sale would be made “when the time is right.”
“It’s about looking at hotel trading and the real estate market and when we see them coming together we will make a move,” he is reported to have said.
Reporting a rise in operating profit of 33% to £153 million in the first half of the year, IHG said 82 hotels had been sold in the six months with a further 10 in Australia and the Intercontinental in Paris being offloaded after the period ended.
Meanwhile, the company said it was too early to say what financial impact Hurricane Katrina will have on the group. It has been forced to close 25 hotel in the Gulf Coast region but with 3,600 worldwide hotels, chief executive Andrew Cosslett said “there’s not going to be a massive impact.”
Report by Steve Jones
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Marginal increase for New York City tourism in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments