InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG): InterContinental Icons

Hotels and resorts brand InterContinental has launched a new platform to engage the public to vote on their favourite symbolic sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feelings in selected cities.

The platform, called InterContinental Icons, aims to discover what makes cities like Paris, New York, Shanghai, Dubai, Sydney and Mexico City unique and why they continue to inspire visitors and residents.

InterContinental said the platform is a response to a research it conducted which that the most popular sights in global cities are not always representative of the cities’ unique spirit.

The research found that travellers often feel they only scratch the surface of a city as 77% said they feel obliged to see the most popular tourist sites, despite 75% expressing a desire to see more of what the city has to offer and to explore like a well-informed local.

An analysis of Instagram posts reveals that the Eiffel Tower in Paris is the most posted tourist site, representing 10% of all posts worldwide. Buckingham Palace is the most-tagged site in London (21%) and Central Park is the most-tagged in New York City (20%), highlighting that tourists are often focused on visiting the same “must-see” sites.

Locals in each of the seven cities confirmed these findings, with more than half (59%) feeling that tourists miss out on the best their city has to offer.

Beginning today, InterContinental invites the public to select the experiences they truly feel demonstrate the city or cities they know best at life.intercontinental.com/icons and engage in a conversation across social media using the hashtag #intercontinentalicons