More than 200 young Saudi nationals were hosted by the Group at a job fair in Madinah
Saudi Arabia, 22 January 2013: More than 200 young Saudi nationals visited a job fair which was organised by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) in Madinah last month. Held at InterContinental Dar Al Iman, the job fair is part of a targeted effort by the company to recruit and invest in the Kingdom's young talent.
Over the course of the day and a half job fair the local students, including ten female, had the chance to gain insight into a career into the hospitality industry with IHG, one of the world's largest hotel groups. There are currently more than 100 upcoming vacancies for Saudi nationals at IHG properties in Madinah alone. Two of the three InterContinental hotels in the city - InterContinental Dar Al Iman and InterContinental Dar Al Hijra - are actively recruiting, as is the soon-to-open Crowne Plaza Madinah, the first Crowne Plaza hotel in the city.
Many of those who attended the job fair are already keenly pursuing careers in the hospitality industry as students at IHG's academy partner in Madinah, the Madinah College of Tourism & Hospitality.
One of the young students who attended the session was Saeed Shalaby who studied at Yanbu Industrial College. Speaking about his experience on the day, Saeed commented: "When I arrived at the job fair I was expecting to go inside an office, submit my documents and wait for a call from HR. Instead, we were escorted around the hotel and treated to a presentation about IHG and what our future with the company could look like. The treatment I received was so different to other job fairs I have been to and made me even more enthusiastic about applying. I am proud to say that I have just joined the Engineering Department at InterContinental Dar Al Iman as a Maintenance Manager."
Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa for IHG commented: "We have a long history in Saudi Arabia - we opened our first hotel here in 1975. The country continues to be a key market for us and our dedication to the Kingdom is reflected in our investment in its local talent. I wish these young hoteliers the best of luck in their future hospitality careers."
IHG is currently the largest international hotel group in Saudi Arabia, both by number of hotels and by number of rooms. The company has 22 hotels open in the Kingdom and plans ambitious growth over the next five years with eight hotels in the development pipeline. In Madinah in particular, the group has three hotels open and has plans to open two more.
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IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with nine hotel brands including InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo®, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express®, Staybridge Suites®, Candlewood Suites®, EVEN™ Hotels and HUALUXE™ Hotels & Resorts. IHG also manages Priority Club® Rewards, the world's first and largest hotel loyalty programme with over 69 million members worldwide.
IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns over 4,500 hotels and more than 672,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories. With more than 1,000 hotels in its development pipeline, IHG expects to recruit around 90,000 people into additional roles across its estate over the next few years.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.
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© Press Release 2013
