Ho Chi Minh City, February 2013, Ms. Michaela Smith is appointed as the new Director of Sales and Marketing for the InterContinental Asiana Saigon.

(TRAVPR.COM) VIETNAM - February 26th, 2013 - Ms. Smith will oversee the Sales & Marketing activities of the 305-room hotel and also the 260-unit residence set in the downtown of bustling Saigon. She started her career with the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) as the Director of Convention Sales in 2007 at the Crowne Plaza Bratislava, Slovakia. During her tenure, the hotel has achieved numerous awards, including the “Best Hotel in Slovakia” in 2008 and the “Best Business Hotel in Slovakia” in two consecutive years 2007 and 2008.

In 2009, Ms. Smith took a new venture on her career path by joining the Crowne Plaza Dubai, a 5-star property with 568 rooms, 15 conference rooms, 1 grand ballroom with the capacity up to 1,800 pax together with 12 food & beverage outlets. Ms. Smith quickly developed herself and enjoyed a swift rise through the CrownePlaza ranks to become the Director of Sales and Marketing at Crowne Plaza Dubai. Working closely with the entire United Arab Emirates sister properties, she aligned and launched new strategies to present not only the Crowne Plaza Dubai but other hotels in the family during the overseas Sales Calls and Exhibitions. Her bold strategic decisions brought the results when the Crown Plaza Dubai is ahead of budget in rooms by almost 3 million USD yield-to-dates.

Ms. Smith is originally from Slovakia where she graduated from the University of Commenius in Bratislava, Slovakia. She speaks English, Slovak, Spanish and German. Her hobbies are discovering unknown places, reading contemporary and classical literature and meeting inspirational people. Other than time with IHG, she has worked at the Hotel Regency Club Tenerife, the Mare Nostrum Tenerife Conference Centre and has her own Event organising agency.

“Michaela’ solid hospitality experience complemented by her entrepreneurial ventures in the customer engagement and event organising arena made her the top candidate for this important role at InterContinental Asiana Saigon. She will be a great asset in developing and implementing innovative strategies and initiatives to deliver guests truly wonderful experience.” said Fergus Stewart – IHG Operation Director of Thailand and Indochina cum General Manager of InterContinental Asiana Saigon.

Notes to Editors:

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.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.priorityclub.comfor more on Priority Club Rewards. For our latest news, visit www.ihg.com/media,www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg or www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

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