THE corporate travel sector is showing signs of recovery, says InterContinental Hotels Group.
Kirk Kinsell, the President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said some familiar faces were starting to return to its Kings Dock Staybridge Suites development.
Staybridge opened last year next to the Echo Arena Liverpool. It was IHG’s first development outside the US specialising in long-term stays for businesses.
Clients at Staybridge Liverpool include drugs giant Novartis, car maker General Motors and phones group Vodafone.
But Mr Kinsell said business activity had been quiet in the recession: “The past six to nine months has been leisure-led.
“Corporates, whether British, US or international, will pull back their investment in these difficult times, but more recently we are seeing people coming back.
“It’s nice to see some of these faces returning, and it is a rough indication of the recovery of the corporate sector.”
IHG is keen to establish the Staybridge model further, and Mr Kinsell revealed: “We’re talking to businesses locally and familiarising them with what the offer is.”
Another indication of a tentative recovery was a high- profile presentation held last Thursday at Staybridge Liverpool for international lenders, investors, surveyors and developers about opportunities to further extend the 12-year-old brand which boasts 166 US sites, but only four in Europe and Africa.
InterContinenal Hotels Group operates two Crowne Plazas in Liverpool and Speke, a Holiday Inn, a Holiday Inn Express and the Staybridge, and has chosen Liverpool as a location for its latest luxury brand, Hotel Indigo, which will open in spring, 2011.
Mr Kinsell said: “The boutique market matches up nicely to Liverpool as a city of culture.”
Well-known Liverpool entrepreneur Simon Matthews-Williams will invest £14m in building the 151-room Indigo on Chapel Street which will create more than 100 new jobs.
And Mr Kinsell promised Indigo will be the “coolest” place to stay.
“We will use style, design and colour that you would not have the courage to use in your second bedroom in your own house.
“That is why our brand is so important. A brand is a promise and something you can depend upon and trust. And it will be cool to stay in Indigo.”
