IHG Canada seeks more sports, SME business

Gopal Rao

LAS VEGAS—Both Gopal Rao, regional vice president of sales and marketing for IHG Canada and Stuart Laurie, director, franchise sales and development, are bullish on IHG’s prospects for Canada in the coming year.

Rao said unequivocally, “We have the best and most comprehensive coverage bar none” based on sales distribution, property distribution and area manager support. And the Holiday Inn/Holiday Inn Express $1 billion relaunch has made people take note,” he told CLN at the IHG conference.

At 157 hotels and 23,014 rooms, IHG is the third largest hotel company in Canada by number of rooms. But both Rao and Laurie are confident that it will move into second place over the next several years.

IHG Canada is having what Rao calls “a stellar year”. The company was named to Canada’s ‘Green 30’ list 2011, and it will receive this year’s Pinnacle Award for Hotel Company of the Year from Hotelier Magazine at a ceremony to be held next month at The Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto.
The sports market and mid-market accounts are two areas of focus for IHG sales efforts in the coming year.

Stuart Laurie

“We are looking at a leadership position in the sports market. The people that play and watch sports are a $500 million market, and we now capture $100 million of that,” said Rao.

Angela Xavier, director of sales for Canada, gave the example of the seven Eli Wilson Goaltending Camps held across the country.  IHG was congratulated in a CBC broadcast for sponsoring seven goaltenders who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend.

“Mid-market accounts for companies with less than 100 employees have a travel spend of $100 million per year [according to the Hotel Association of Canada], and we would like to get a big piece of that,” she said.

Another focus will be to win back IHG Priority Club members who haven’t stayed with IHG for awhile.

Rao congratulated this year’s Canadian IHG Award winners. The Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites in North Vancouver won a Torchbearer Award for the llth year in a row.  Torchbearer Awards go to hotels with the highest levels of excellence in all aspects of operation—from quality to customer satisfaction