Marriott International is planning to expand its Asian portfolio to 330 hotels by 2016, more than doubling its current collection.
The US hotel company said this week that it will open six hotels in Asia in October 2013 alone, with new Ritz-Carltons in Chengdu, Tianjin and Bengaluru and JW Marriotts in Hanoi, Bengaluru and Delhi. These form part of a pipeline of 186 hotels – 135 of which are expected to open in the next three years, more than doubling Marriott’s Asian footprint by 2016.
“This is an exciting time for Marriott as we join with our local hotel development partners in contributing to Asia’s future growth,” said Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president & CEO. “Our explosive expansion across the region reflects the popularity of our brands in Asia with owners and customers alike, and with a hotel opening almost every week across the continent we will be poised to welcome travellers from the world over.
“To expect to have some 330 hotels in the next three to four years represents phenomenal success of our brands and the commitment of our owners,” he added.
Already this month, Marriott has added to its brand portfolio in Asia, with the launch of the region’s first Fairfield by Marriott hotel, which opened in India last week. This becomes Marriott’s eighth brand in Asia, with the ninth – Edition – expected to launch in Bangkok in 2016.
“We are seeing development across all the countries we are currently present in – including great growth in Japan. We are also entering new markets in Asia, having recently signed hotels in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. China remains our biggest market in the region with 64 open hotels and signed contracts for an additional 89 hotels, which will take us to more than 150 hotels in the country in the next three years or so. As a result, we expect to grow our distribution from 16 cities… to more than 50 cities [by 2016],” said Simon Cooper, Marriott’s president & managing director for Asia Pacific.
To meet this growth, Marriott expects to add more than 41,000 new staff in Asia, doubling its current workforce in the region to more than 80,000 employee between now and 2017.
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