Holiday Inn to open 38 hotels across Mideast, India in 5 years

Seven new Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express Hotels are planned in the Middle East alone, adding to the 25 hotels already open in the region, Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa for IHG, said.

In India, the brand will grow by over 400 per cent as 31 new Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels open across the country, including the country's first Holiday Inn Express due to launch later this month, he said.

"Holiday Inn has had a great 35 years in the region and continues to perform and grow today. It continues to demonstrate its strength as a mid-scale brand by providing guests in our markets with great experiences at good value," he said.

"We look forward to the launch of our first Holiday Inn Express in Ahmedabad later this month as we continue to grow the brand family, and we're delighted that the Wilson family are here to celebrate yet another milestone in the brand's history with us," Gauvin added.

At present, there are 3,414 properties in the Holiday Inn brand family globally, with another 682 due to open in the next three to five years.

Spence Wilson, son of Kemmons Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inn brand, said the guests in the hotel included legendary singer "Elvis Presley and US President Barack Obama, who took his family to Holiday Inn Accra".