A hotel of the international hotel chain Holiday Inn, managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), will be set up in Arkhyz ATRC. The Holiday Inn Arkhyz hotel resort will be built by 2019 by the resident of the Arkhyz Special Economic Zone (SEZ) – Grand-Arkhyz Company. The project introduces the concept of an open lobby, which brings together in a single space a lobby lounge, a restaurant, a lounge bar and a business center. There will also be a conference hall with an area of approximately 450 sq.m for business and entertainment events and a fitness club, opened for the guests. The franchise (franchising) agreement was signed today at the BuyBrand Expo between Grand-Arkhyz LLC and InterContinental Hotels Group. Previously, the Grand-Arkhyz Company has also entered into a hotel management agreement with the Russian management company Cronwell Hotels & Resorts.

“The approximate date of the beginning of construction is April 2017, and the commissioning is scheduled for autumn 2019. The capacity of the hotel resort will be 207 rooms and about 500 places of accommodation. It is also planned to establish a restaurant, a children’s playground, a movie-theatre, and a SPA-zone. “This resort will operate under the brand name of the 4-star Holiday Inn and will be located in the tourist village Romantik on the south-facing slope of the Arkhyz resort,” Artem Trifonov, the Director General of the Grand-Arkhyz Company, told the reporters.

He also emphasized the importance of the announced plans for the Arkhyz resort. “I believe this event to be a milestone.  It makes it possible to declare that an international hotel operator will appear in Arkhyz, and, thus, the level of lodging and quality of tourists service will enhance. Arkhyz is now ranging among the international level resorts in Russia. The InterContinental Hotels Group is a long-established international brand. Since the first contact, it has proven itself to be a reliable partner, flexibly approaching the accomplishment of tasks, and proposed such a plan of project implementation that satisfied all the parties involved,” a representative of the SEZ resident added. He also noted that the project implementation became possible due to the positive investment climate created at the site of Arkhyz ATRC by the Joint-Stock Company Northern Caucasus Resorts, the Government of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic and the Ministry of the North Caucasus Affairs.

“A significant brand in hotel management appeared in Arkhyz. This is the largest operator in the world. We are definitely interested in popularizing the resort and its getting up to the world standards, so the presence of IHG in Arkhyz, the pilot site of our project, contributes to the accomplishment of this task. The issue is important as the hotel in Arkhyz will fall within the reservation system of the largest global operator which will contribute to the expansion of geography of tourists being attracted. This is a positive aspect not only for the investor – the Grand-Arkhyz Company, but for the entire resort as a whole,” Oleg Gorchev, the Director General of JSC NCR, said.

According to Alexey Korobkin, the IHG Director for Strategic Development in Russia, CIS, Baltics and Scandinavia, Arkhyz is one of the most dynamically developing resorts in the North Caucasus and that was one of the factors in his decision to establish the franchise here. “The InterContinental Hotels Group operates in Russia under a long-term strategic development program. Within our program, we will consider different areas, where our brands can help the owners to work as efficiently as possible. We have seen a very strong tourist activity in the Arkhyz resort in the past few years. The Grand-Arkhyz Company represents for us a partner that understands the principles of cooperation with an international brand and is willing to develop the project jointly with us. We will provide the investor with all the tools so that its hotel could earn the maximum profit,” the IHG representative claimed. According to him, these tools include the connection to the IHG marketing program, the international sales channels, and to the global loyalty program – IHG Rewards Club, which is the largest in the industry and involves 96 million members.

In Mr. Korobkin’s opinion, the Arkhyz resort has a strong development potential. “We are thinking long-term. Arkhyz is the place where the Northern Caucasus Resorts Company is working with the region very actively, to promote this area and the Northern Caucasus resorts as a whole, not only to the Russian, but also to the international market,” he added.

Alexey Korobkin emphasized the importance of adhering to the highest service standards while implementing the project. “There is a certain number of requirements we apply to any hotel. First and foremost, we must understand that the guests arriving at the Holiday Inn expect a high service level that they are accustomed to worldwide. Therefore, we are working very closely with the technical team of the Grand-Arkhyz Company to create a product that will meet all the requirements of the Holiday Inn chain.”

“We know all the standards of the InterContinental Hotels Group quite well and will help our customer to meet them at all stages of the project implementation, from the design to the recruitment and HR management. The Hotel Manager must be selected by IHG, as for the rest of the personnel, their recruitment and training is our joint task with IHG and the owner of the hote,” Alexey Musakin, the Managing Partner, Vice-President of the Russian Hotel Association Cronwell Hotels & Resorts which will manage the Holiday Inn Arkhyz Hotel, added.

Reference

The Joint-Stock Company Northern Caucasus Resorts was incorporated in 2010 to manage the tourism cluster establishment project in the North Caucasus Federal District, Krasnodar Territory and Republic of Adygea. The project envisages the construction of new world class ski resorts: Arkhyz (Karachay-Cherkessia), Veduchi (Chechnya), Elbrus (Kabardino-Balkaria), Mamison (North Ossetia), Lagonaki (Krasnodar Territory and Adygea), Matlas (Dagestan), Tsori and Armkhi (Ingushetia), and also the beach resorts on the Caspian coast (Dagestan) and balneotherapeutic health resorts in the Stavropol Territory.

Grand-Arkhyz LLC has received the status of the resident of the Special Economic Zone Arkhyz in December 2015, and, as a resident, it is implementing a hotel resort construction project in Arkhyz ATRC, using privileges and preferences granted to the SEZ residents.

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is an international company with an extensive portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants, HUALUXE™ Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, EVEN® Hotels, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®. The IHG Company runs or owns, including under franchise or lease agreements, more than 5,000 hotels and about 750,000 hotel rooms in nearly 100 countries around the world; and some 1,400 hotels are to be developed. IHG manages the IHG® Rewards Club – the world's first and largest guest loyalty program, with over 96 million members around the world. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the IHG® British holding company, registered in England and Wales. More than 350,000 employees work in IHG hotels and corporate offices worldwide.

Cronwell Hotels & Resorts has been operating in Russia since 1995 (under the brandname Cronwell since 2009) and is an experienced player in the hotel business.Cronwell Hotels & Resorts manages and owns hotels of various formats: urban, suburban and resort, ranging from business to premium class, in 3 regions of Russia and in Greece, with an overall key count exceeding 1,500 operating rooms. The priority areas of the company’s activity are development, construction and management of hotel resorts.