Unrest in Bahrain and Egypt cost InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) Middle East operations $4 million in the second quarter of 2011, the UK-based hotel has said.

The company said revenue per available room (revPAR) in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) increased 4 per cent during the quarter, but would have been better had it not been for problems in Bahrain and Egypt.

Excluding Egypt (10 hotels) and Bahrain (2 hotels), where the political unrest resulted in significant declines, revPAR would have risen 5.3 per cent, the company said in a statement.

In other Middle East markets, Saudi Arabia saw the biggest revPAR growth of 10.2 per cent, while its hotels in the UAE saw an increase of 3.4 per cent.

Second quarter EMEA revPAR growth hit 4.8 per cent, or 6 per cent growth, excluding Egypt and Bahrain, the company added.

EMEA revenue increased 17 per cent to $224 million and operating profit increased 22 per cent to $71 million.

Managed operating profit declined by $1 million to $31 million as underlying growth across continental Europe was offset by a $4-million impact from the unrest in the Middle East.

Mr Richard Solomons, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group, said: “In the first half, we delivered a strong performance across each of our regions, driven both by increased occupancy from business and leisure travellers as well as progressive rate improvement.”

“Global revPAR grew 6.7 per cent, with Greater China up 12.7 per cent and the US up 8.2 per cent, where the Holiday Inn relaunch is delivering sustained outperformance,” he added.

IHG is an international hotel company which operates seven hotel brands — InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

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