Hotel giant Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has reported a return to profit after benefiting from increases in occupancy in its key markets.

Reporting its half year figures to 30 June, IHG said global revenue per available room (RevPAR) had increased by 7.4 per cent up during the second quarter of the year, compared with a 0.2 per cent rise in the first quarter.

IHG reported RevPAR growths across EMEA (4 per cent) and the Americas (2.2 per cent) but the most impressive growth was at its Asian hotels, which recorded RevPAR gains of 13 per cent during the first half.

As a result, the group reported a 22 per cent increase in operating profits - up to US219m (£139m, €166m) from US$179m the year before.

During the year, IHG added a total of 148 hotels (19,003 rooms) while offloading 83 properties. It now operates 4,503 hotels totalling 656,661 rooms, making it the world's largest hotel group based room count.

Andrew Cosslett, chief executive of IHG, said: "During the downturn we worked closely with our owners to reduce costs, drive revenue and build the strength of our system and brands.

"In the first half we signed 130 hotels and opened 148, despite the tough financing environment. The quality of these new hotels is exceptionally high, particularly in China where both our pipeline and system of open hotels are skewed towards more upscale developments.

"We have now completed the relaunch of nearly 2,600 Holiday Inn hotels worldwide out of a total of 3,400, and the performance of these hotels continues to meet or beat our expectations."

IHG's brands include Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.