Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has seen full-year earnings rise to more than one billion US dollars (£794 million) for the first time in its history thanks to booming travel demand.
The firm pledged to return over one billion US dollars (£794 million) to shareholders this year in dividends and share buyouts after the bumper profits haul.
It reported underlying operating profits of 1.02 billion US dollars (£810 million) for 2023, up 23% on the previous year after revenues increased 19%.
Pre-tax profits more than doubled to 1.01 billion US dollars (£802 million) from 540 million US dollars (£429 million) in 2022.
IHG, which also owns chains including Crowne Plaza and Regent, unveiled a new 800 million US dollar (£635 million) share buyback and hiked its final dividend by 10%.
Its results showed that revenue per available room – a key performance measure for hotel companies – lifted 16.1% over the year, and was 7.6% higher in the final three months.
In a sign of the bounce-back in travel, it said global revenue per available room was 10.9% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic struck.
Elie Maalouf, IHG’s recently appointed chief executive, said: “Travel demand was strong across all markets, with revenue per available room up 16% on last year and 11% ahead of the 2019 pre-pandemic peak.”
“The travel industry has attractive, long-term drivers of demand,” he added.
He laid out his strategy to target high single-digit growth in fee revenue by increasing revenue per room and the number of hotels each year on average over the medium to long term.
IHG opened 275 hotels last year and has another 556 signed up in the pipeline.
It saw hotel openings rise by 27% year-on-year in the final quarter of 2023 and new signing were up by 50% – “one of our biggest ever quarters for development activity,” according to the group.