as you say, the chief executive, keith barr — who the chief executive, keith barr —whoi the chief executiveested in china, in wuhan alone they have quite a few hotels. in the short—term, this is a real problem for them in terms of how they respond, what their policies are in place, and how they protect their customers, and how they refu nd their customers, and how they refund those who decide, "we're not travelling." refund those who decide, "we're not travelling. " yes, refund those who decide, "we're not travelling." yes, no doubt there'll be a short—term hit, and it will hit ihg more than anyone else, which is why their share price has suffered more than anyone else at the moment. it's not just than anyone else at the moment. it's notjust the mowny, though, is it? it'sjust how well they respond as an organisation to people's concerns and fears — they might have people in hotels who have it. it's that kind of thing, isn't it? yes. the important thing is — this has happened before, it will happen again. it's all about government response as well. everyone needs to work with each other. loo

well a little earlier i spoke to keith barr, chief executive of the intercontinental hotels group and wuhan are still open. you know what is amazing? i'm so incredibly proud of our colleagues, they are sharing stories, hotels housing medical personnel who have flown in to help individuals affected by this virus in one of the hotels was making meals for workers building new hotels. 0ur hotels was making meals for workers building new hotels. our team is they're doing extraordinary things day in and day out. we focus on china first. hong kong trading has been very challenging because of the u nsettled been very challenging because of the unsettled nature there and of course 110w unsettled nature there and of course now we have the virus in mainland china, principally. the experience of sars was a very sharp drop and then a very quick recovery because it's an incredibly resilient economy. i lived there during the h1n1 and to see the strength and resilience, the ability of the government to stimulate demand, the real question will be this continuous work that will determine the impact and

keith barr joins us. you did better than the street was looking for in the reporting quarter. wonder, because of your very large exposure to the chinese market, what do you expect for the current quarter? >> we had a really solid year last year. areas of strong performance. we had our best performance in terms of opening new hotels in over a decade. the number of new hotel rooms up about 5%. profit up 6%. we were able to increase our dividend 10%. a solid performance for last year and good momentum to this year. clearly the coronavirus is a challenge for the travel industry and for business in general. we are very focused on the health, well-being, the care of our colleagues. customers working with our business partners and also with the government to support them in china to deal with individuals being affected by this. expect --do you first, how do you expect the coronavirus to hit your numbers? do use to manage the company's chinese business, so you have particular experience in this market. what does it look like for intercontinental in q1? keith: i lived in shanghai for a