IHG® and Japan Hotel REIT Investment Corporation to bring Holiday Inn to Osaka

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, today announced the signing of Holiday Inn Osaka Namba in partnership with Japan Hotel REIT Investment Corporation (JHR).

JHR is the largest J-REIT (Japanese Real Estate Investment Trust) in Japan specialising in hotel property investment and currently owns a total of 38 hotels across Japan.  The Holiday Inn Osaka Namba is the REIT’s first partnership with IHG.

Hans Heijligers, Head of Japan, IHG said: ”We are pleased to bring the Holiday Inn brand to Osaka - Japan’s third largest city.  Osaka saw a 91 per cent growth* in international tourist numbers in 2015 and we are confident the brand awareness achieved by Holiday Inn’s global network of over 1,150 hotels will attract strong occupancies from international guests looking to stay with a familiar hotel brand.”  

With a focus on increasing annual international visitor arrival numbers to 40 million by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Japan’s capital city and outlying regions are set to benefit from the tourism boom.  Osaka is well positioned to capitalise with Kansai International Airport now another hub for flight routes from China and across Asia.  The hotel, currently operating as the Hotel Vista Grande Osaka, will rebrand as Holiday Inn Osaka Namba by the end of 2016.

Holiday Inn currently has 1,152 hotels in more than 70 countries. In Japan, there are Holiday Inn hotels in Sapporo, Sendai, Kanazawa and Miyazaki with Osaka now bringing the total to five.

First established in 2006, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan, a joint venture between IHG and ANA Holdings, is the largest international hotel company in Japan operating a total of 32 hotels combining IHG’s three international brands - InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn – with the local ANA brand power.  The Holiday Inn will join IHG’s established InterContinental and ANA Crowne Plaza hotels in Osaka - to further boost our presence in a major city for international travellers.

As part of the globally renowned Holiday Inn brand, the hotel will enjoy benefits of IHG’s global booking channels, sales network and the world’s largest loyalty programme “IHG Rewards Club” with nearly 94 million members.