Dubai: Marriott International, a US-based hotel chain, said its investment and expansion in the Middle East and Africa have helped boost its performance in the second quarter of 2014.
According to a company statement on Wednesday, Marriott’s revenue per available room (RevPAR — a performance benchmark) in the region grew by 3.9 per cent year-on-year. However, its RevPAR excluding Egypt grew by 7 per cent. The company did not provide the actual figures.
Hotel occupancy, meanwhile, rose 4.4 per cent year-on-year.
New Protea Hotels opened during the second quarter of the year after Marriott acquired the Protea Hospitality Holding in April this year, including Protea Hotel Lusaka Tower in Lusaka, Zambia and Protea Hotel Select Ikeja in Lagos.
New properties
Also, Marriott expanded further in the UAE during the first quarter of the year with the opening of Al Jaddaf Marriott Hotel Dubai and the Marriott Executive Apartments Al Jaddaf Dubai.
In the regional pipeline are Residence Inn by Marriott Kuwait City, due to open in September, and Residence Inn by Marriott Jazan, Saudi Arabia in October.
Marriott added 162 new properties globally in the second quarter of the year. The company’s development pipeline rose to around 1,300 properties with almost 215,000 rooms at quarter-end.
Global revenue stood at $13 billion (Dh47.7 billion) in the 2013 fiscal year.
