Visit the main story that accompanies this sidebar, "Marriott Adopts Regional, Account-Based Sales Focus"Marriott International is planning rapid global growth in the next three years, particularly in the key corporate travel markets of China and India, across most of its major brands.
By 2010, Marriott expects to have 500 hotels open internationally, said Ed Fuller, Marriott's president of international lodging. The chain currently has about 350 hotels outside the United States, compared with only 16 non-U.S. hotels in 1991, he said.
As is the case for many hotel companies, China and India are primary development targets
(BTN, Sept. 10, 2007). In China, where Marriott has more than 30 hotels operating, the company expects to have 50 hotels by 2010, and Marriott has 21 hotels either announced for development or under construction in India, where it now has eight properties.
Marriott has 19 announced projects that will begin to open in 2009 in the Middle East, particularly the United Arab Emirates, roughly doubling its current presence in the region, Fuller said. In addition, Marriott plans to have 20 hotels in Thailand by 2010 and also plans growth in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Kazakhstan.
While most of these areas have a heavy corporate travel volume, Fuller said growth in leisure travel, particularly from the Chinese, also is an impetus. China didn't even make the top five in number of outbound travelers a few years ago but most recently ranked third, behind the United States and Germany. "The current prediction is that China could surpass Germany this year, and it's only a question of when they pass the United States," he said.
The upper upscale JW Marriott brand is one of the top for international development—of the 60 planned, about 40 will be developed internationally—but Marriott's midprice brands also are being developed rapidly, Fuller said. Although Marriott Executive Apartments also are being developed, Marriott is not looking to expand its extended stay brands in those regions, he said.
"In emerging countries, the average stay is six to eight months," Fuller said. "An extended stay at a Residence Inn is typically a 14-day stay."