BANGKOK 16 January 2020: InterContinental Hotels Group has announced a partnership with Asset World Corporation to manage a portfolio of properties across Thailand.
Thailand’s leading integrated lifestyle real-estate group will develop more than 1,200 rooms across the country with the first signing announced Wednesday in Chiang Mai; the 306-room InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping.
IHG Southeast Asia and Korea vice president development Serena Lim commented: “With plans to double our portfolio in Thailand in the next three to five years, this signing today between IHG and AWC is another milestone in realizing this ambition.”
Under the agreement, hotels in multiple popular destinations such as Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Hua Hin will be signed within three years.
Asset World Corp Public Company Limited CEO and president Wallapa Traisorat said: “We are excited to be extending our partnership with IHG. With our shared vision of elevating the hospitality sector in Thailand, we are confident that the InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping will be one of the many projects to set the benchmark in Thailand.”
InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping, is a conversion of the now-closed Imperial Mae Ping Hotel that was in business for 30 until the doors closed last year.
The hotel is expected to open in 2021 ahead of completing a total remake of the property in 2022.
Located in downtown Chiangmai near the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, Tha-Pae Gate, Warorot Market and other tourist attractions, InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping will have over 3,600 sqm of outdoor and indoor convention, event and meeting spaces.
The remake covers the entire structure with just one exception, The Teresa Teng Museum, a 15th-floor suite where the famous Taiwanese singer stayed when visiting Chiang Mai. On what was to be her last trip in May 1995, she collapsed in her room from a severe respiratory attack and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The suite was left intact even though demolition crews stripped the premises back to its concrete frame.
Annually thousands of Chinese tourists purchased an afternoon tea package that included a visit to the suite that turned into a remembrance shrine. There are plans to add a speciality restaurant and rooftop bar, where guests can experience the suite’s original set-up, decor and furniture when Teresa Teng last stayed at the hotel over two decades ago.
IHG has 29 hotels across six brands in the portfolio, with another 30 hotels in the pipeline.
