Paul Malcolm |
The chain will introduce the Middle East's first Marriott Executive Apartments lodging in Dubai this year. By 2005 the Marriott International portfolio in the region will grow to 31 hotels with 8,978 rooms in 10 countries. This growth represents a 30 per cent increase in hotels and 22 per cent increase in rooms and the addition of one country over 2000.
Marriott International has been named to manage the 168-room Renaissance Golden View Hotel in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt and the 300-room Aqaba Marriott Hotel and Resort on the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan.
The Renaissance Hotel, which will open later this year, will be the seventh in the company's lodging portfolio in Egypt, and the Aqaba Resort will be its fourth in Jordan. Others in the pipeline include the 425-room JW Marriott Resort Mirage City in Cairo, the 310-room Taba Marriott Hotel and Beach Resort on the Red Sea, the 178-room Renaissance Tunis Hotel in Tunisia and the 216-room Jordan Valley Marriott Resort at the Dead Sea in Jordan.
"Our growth is being fuelled by customer preference for our hotels and by owner and franchisee demand for our brands," said Paul Malcom, regional vice-president for sales and marketing for the UK and Middle East.
It has been 21 years since the group opened its first hotel in the region, the 395-room Riyadh Marriott. The expansion supports the company's plans to open over 1,000 hotels and timesharing resorts and 175,000 gross room additions between 1999 and 2003.
Its global portfolio exceeds 400,000 rooms and nearly 2,200 hotels in 60 countries. Marriott Worldwide's sales have grown 33.24 per cent in room nights booked from the Middle East in 2000. Samir Daqqaq, vice-president of Marriott Worldwide Sales, said the number of rooms booked through the global distribution system (GDS) increased 52.61 per cent. In 2000, Marriott reported systemwide sales of $19.8 billion.
