Booming business at InterContinental Hotels Group's flagship site on Park Lane helped the firm deliver a 38% rise in profits today despite slowing growth across the business.

IHG, which reopened the five-star hotel in London in April last year following a £76 million revamp, said group first-quarter profits jumped from £45 million to £62 million.

Chief executive Andrew Cosslett said: "We are 12 months in on Park Lane and it is going well. It is doing better than we thought. It has been a very successful relaunch.

"Visitor numbers from America are down because of the weak dollar but it has been more than made up for by visitors from elsewhere such as Russia and the Middle East."

Despite the rising profits and revenues, up 10% to £2.2 billion across its 3983 hotels around the world, growth at the business is slowing as the credit crunch and economic downturn hits business.

Growth in the all-important RevPAR figure - revenue per available room - fell from 7% last year to 3.5% in the first quarter.

In the United States, it was down from 6.1% to 2.3%.

Cosslett blamed the timing of Easter, in March this year as opposed to April last year, which he said hit demand at many of IHG's hotels because of the fall in the number of business travellers.