Marriott expanding footprint in Asia
Marriott International announced yesterday that it expected to more than double the size of its portfolio in the Asia-Pacific region in the next few years.
With 132 hotels open in Asia today and a pipeline of signed and approved deals now totalling an additional 143 properties, the company expects to grow to at least 265 hotels by 2016, with more than 80,000 rooms in 16 countries.
Simon Cooper, Marriott International’s president and managing director in Asia, said the company was delighted with its growth in the region and believed it was a great testament to the popularity of its brands.
The company expects to launching new brands in the region soon, with the introduction of Fairfield by Marriott in India next year and its Edition brand in Bangkok in 2014.
Marriott International currently operates eight brands in Asia and the Pacific: Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, Ritz-Carlton, JW Marriott, Renaissance Hotels & Resorts, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard by Marriott, Marriott Executive Apartments and the recently launched Autograph Collection of hotels that debuted in Asia this month with the opening of The Stones Legian in Bali.
The company witnessed the doubling of membership in Marriott Rewards, its award-winning loyalty programme, in Asia last year. Marriott Rewards grew to more than a million members in China alone, a country that continues to lead the company’s Asia growth. With 127 open and signed hotels in China, the company expects to open on average of one hotel per month there for the next five years.
In India, 23 hotels with Marriott International’s brands are under construction and the company is likely to grow from 15 hotels to more than 50 in the next few years.
Across Asia, the company signed 13 new hotel deals in August alone. These include a luxury Bulgari hotel in Shanghai, Courtyard by Marriott Amritsar, a Marriott in Hengyang in China’s Hunan province, and a Renaissance hotel in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province.
Marriott already has a significant market presence in the key Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The company is now entering emerging primary and secondary cities across China and further enriching the portfolio through the addition of more resorts.
Marriott is currently operating in 11 Chinese provinces and expects to be operating in an additional 13 provinces and regions by 2016 including Hunan, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Anhui and Macau, which represents an additional 32 Chinese cities.
Marriott International expects to have hotels in 24 of the 34 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions and special administrative regions in China by 2016.
