Inter-Continental picks ex-BA boss as Euro chief

Inter-Continental Hotels & Resorts has appointed Mark Hodson to the newly created role of marketing director, Europe.

His responsibilities will include building the Inter-Continental Hotels brand in both business and leisure markets. He is also tasked with finding third-party partners to develop new alliances and revenue streams for the brand in Europe.

Hodson joins from British Airways, where he was global brand manager for BA’s first class ticket brand. Previous posts he held at BA include brand manager alliances and country manager of Jordan, where he was responsible for operations, sales and marketing.

Hodson will head the marketing team for the Six Continents prestige brand and will report to Inter-Continental Europe vice-president marketing David Danby. Previously, Danby handled Inter-Continental as well as the other hotel brands in the Six Continents portfolio.

Inter-Continental’s lead advertising agency within Europe is cdp-travissully, which was appointed to the &£3m account in October 2001. The group’s global agency is Leagas Delaney. The Media Planning Group handles media planning and buying. Hodson says there are no plans for an agency review.

Six Continents, formerly Bass Hotels in the UK, also owns the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza brands. Inter-Continental was bought from Japanese group Saison in 1998.

Inter-Continental is currently running a tactical price promotion campaign under the banner “The whole world half-price”.