InterContinental Hotels Group is planning to add a new upper mid-scale hotel brand in China, one of its most promising emerging markets, by year-end and eventually export the brand across Asia Pacific.

IHG chief executive Andrew Cosslett announced that the brand, which remains unnamed, will be positioned between the company's current upscale Crowne Plaza and its luxury InterContinental.

The group plans to more than double the size of its operations in the key burgeoning markets of China, India and the Middle East over the next few years, capitalising on ever increasing traveller numbers and global economic trends, boosted by increased life expectancy, popularity of low-cost carriers and internet access.

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