IHG opens Holiday Inn in Mutare, Zimbabwe

4 Jul 2017

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced the opening of its new Holiday Inn in Mutare, Zimbabwe - the third Holiday Inn franchised property with African Sun Limited. Located in the heart of the city centre with significant business activity across the forestry, citrus farming, and mining industries, the hotel features 96 rooms, an outdoor pool and a meeting room that can seat 250 people.

Holiday Inn Mutare

South Africa and Zimbabwe have good bilateral relations and strong economic cooperation with trade interest in various sectors such as capital equipment, textile, agricultural products, and diamonds, amongst others. Mutare is positioned in the diamond mining region of Zimbabwe, and close to the Tete Province, a coal mining region in Mozambique.

Supporting business travel

Commenting on the announcement, Pascal Gauvin, chief operating officer, India, Middle East and Africa, IHG, said: “Africa represents huge untapped opportunities for a variety of industries across the region. We’re thrilled to announce the opening in Mutare as we believe that it will further support business travel between the Middle East and Africa. We are especially proud to continue working with established partners such as African Sun Limited who also own several other properties with us. We are excited to begin welcoming guests to the Holiday Inn Mutare.”

Edwin T Shangwa, managing director, African Sun, said: “We are happy to be partnering with IHG once again. We have successfully launched two Holiday Inn hotels together, and have seen great success across both properties. Now that the hotel has opened its doors, it will benefit equally from IHG’s global distribution systems, strong brand portfolio, and loyalty programmes.”

The Holiday Inn Harare and Holiday Inn Bulawayo have both performed to brand standards and present further opportunities for growth. The new Holiday Inn property in Mutare increases IHG and Africa Sun’s footprint to a total of 351 rooms.

Across the Middle East and Africa, there are 31 (6,346 rooms) Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts open and an additional nine properties (2,503 rooms) due to open within the next three to five years. Globally, there are almost 1,200 Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts open, with a further 265 due to open in the next three to five years.