Marriott International to set up GCC in Hyderabad, first in hospitality

A policy to attract more such players in the works, details to be shared by first quarter of next year, says Telangana minister

Marriott International will set up a global capability center (GCC) in Hyderabad, which will be its first such offshore unit in India and will help support Marriott’s various operations across its global enterprise in 141 countries and territories.

Marriott Tech Accelerator is also -- in all likelihood -- the first ever GCC from a hospitality major being set-up in India.

While the company did not give details of the size of the center, senior state government officials said that the company will hire 300 people by the first quarter of the calendar year 2025.

The Marriott Tech Accelerator is an expansion of the company’s global technology team and will support Marriott’s tech infrastructure, engineering capacity, next-gen solutions, and security capabilities across its global enterprise in 141 countries and territories.

Marriott will begin its GCC full-scale operations set to commence by the first quarter of 2025.

“We have chosen to establish the Marriott Tech Accelerator in Hyderabad, India because of its world-class talent and strong reputation as a major IT hub. We appreciate the close collaboration with the Telangana government on this project and look forward to expanding our best-in-class technology workforce,” said Drew Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue & Technology Officer, Marriott International.

Duddila Sridhar Babu, Minister of Information Technology, Electronics, Communications, and Industries, Telangana said that the state has emerged as a global tech leader with over 200 GCCs driving business transformation. Babu also said that going ahead the state government will come out with incentive schemes to attract more such players.

“So far, we have not given any special incentives. We have always assured the industry of the best support from us. We are however working on a model to attract more such players. It is still in works and we can share some details by the first quarter of next year,” said Babu.

The minister said, “Our talent pool includes over 1 million GCC-ready tech professionals and 350,000 AI and chip designers, with an annual influx of 250,000 engineers. This new GCC advances our vision of making Telangana a global hub for AI, Data Science, and IoT.”

This announcement builds off 25 years of Marriott doing business in India, which began in 1999 with the opening of the Goa Marriott Resort and Spa. Earlier this year, the company celebrated its 150th hotel in India, the Marriott Katra Resort and Spa. The company’s expansion plans in India are expected to take its room count from around 29,000 rooms across 17 brands as of October 2024, to over 42,000 rooms in the coming years.

The decision to set up the Marriott Tech Accelerator in Hyderabad marks a pivotal step in the state’s ongoing efforts to attract GCC investments from a broader range of industries.

This strategic initiative aims to engage large multinationals from diverse sectors, emphasising the unique benefits of establishing GCCs in Telangana, where a skilled talent pool and robust infrastructure are readily available.