Intercontinental Hotels Group plans to increase its headcount in China by 67 percent in 18 months with more hotels opening to cater for China's growing tourism market, a senior company executive said yesterday.

The group, or IHG, is expected to have about 50,000 people working with its hotels from the current 30,000, who are working under its brands including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Express Holiday Inn in China's mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, said Edmond Ip, chief operating officer of IHG China, in Shanghai yesterday.

The group will have another 100-plus hotels under construction open in about two to three years.

The group now has 86 hotels in China and is the biggest hotel group in the country. Last year it opened 17 hotels in the country.

IHG yesterday teamed up with ChinaPay e-Payment Service Co, a China UnionPay subsidiary, to offer real-time online UnionPay bank card payments. It is the first international hotel group to offer the service. UnionPay is the sole provider of trans-bank card transactions. About 1.5 billion UnionPay cards are issued so far.

IHG is aiming for a yearly growth of 25 percent in online bookings in China, the company said.

ChinaPay signed the deal with IHG after three years of preparation and system matching. The deal is two-year exclusive, which means other hotel groups can't reach similar deals with ChinaPay in the period.

Ip said he hoped they could set the standard for the rest of the hotel industry. ChinaPay may extend the practice to other hotel groups in the future.

"We hope we can expand the cooperation into IHG's global platform when more Chinese are seeking outbound traveling," said Liu Yongchun, chairman and general manager of ChinaPay.

(Shanghai Daily June 11, 2008)