It was not surprising when the boss of one of the world’s biggest hotel groups bullishly declared in February that worries about permanent damage to business travel were “highly exaggerated”.
But Keith Barr, chief executive of Intercontinental Hotels Group, also conceded the market was unlikely to recover for several years.
The FTSE 100 company, responsible for almost 6,000 hotels with 886,000 rooms, is emerging from what it has described as the toughest year in its history — with sales for 2020 some 52 per cent below 2019 levels at $992 million (£717 million).
Despite the battering, IHG, whose brands include Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, is in pretty good shape. It is well placed to benefit from a resurgence in holiday travel and has a