InterContinental Hotels Group IHG® today announces the name of IHG® Rewards Club’s new top membership level, Spire Elite, introduced to recognise and reward its most loyal members. To celebrate the launch, world renowned travel photographer Steve McCurry – who is best known for his 1984 photographic portrait ‘Afghan Girl’ – has joined forces with the world’s biggest hotel loyalty programme to capture how a moment of recognition is brought to life through three poignant photographs. Each photograph depicts that unique and treasured moment at which one person recognises another.
Starting this week, IHG Rewards Club will better reward its most loyal members, with the most relevant benefits, through the launch of Spire Elite. This comes following extensive research into what IHG Rewards Club members want from their loyalty programme, which identified the importance of recognition to members who want to feel rewarded for their loyalty. The introduction of Spire Elite now establishes recognition at the heart of the relationship IHG Rewards Club has with its members.
Commenting on the photographs he created for IHG Rewards Club, Steve McCurry said: “Photography is about searching for little moments that happen in the blink of an eye but can last a lifetime. Each one of these photographs captures how a moment of recognition can do just this. Like a photograph, recognition does not need translation or adaptation; its prominence is understood by everyone, everywhere”.
Susanna Freer Epstein, SVP Customer Loyalty, IHG, added: “The feeling that you’re recognised for being special is what IHG Rewards Club aims to deliver to with the launch of Spire Elite. It’s our way of saying thank you to our most loyal members, who from today will benefit from ability to earn 100% extra bonus points on all qualifying stays across the IHG hotel portfolio – an industry first. This is just the start of a series of exciting enhancements we will be introducing to continue recognising and building rewarding relationships with our members.”
