Making People Happy

Shantha de Silva, head of South West Asia, InterContinental Hotels Group, believes that his job is to make people happy colleagues, guests and owners

- Babita Krishnan

With over 5,000 hotels, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is one of the largest hotel companies in the world spread over 10 brands and operating in over a 100 countries, catering to the needs of a large crosssegment of customer needs. What is today one of the most well-known brands in the world started as a family hotel and the idea grew out of an incident in 1964 from a road trip.

As IHG celebrates its 70th year, Shantha de Silva, head of South West Asia, InterContinental Hotels Group shares the brand philosophy and the way ahead in India. "In 1965, we were the first international brand to come to India in partnership with the Oberoi. We have a rich heritage of brands, catering to a wide section of customers and we have been around for a long time," says de Silva. IHG currently has a portfolio of four brands in 14 cities with a robust pipeline of 42 hotels (predominantly Holiday Inn hotels) which will come to light in the next couple of years. This, explained de Silva, is due to the growing middle-class and the growing young population in India, "Our growth will be concentrated around Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express because we see an opportunity for that segment of the market growing. On the other hand, we also see a niche opportunity for our InterContinental brand and we want to see it in key cities in India."