 "Marriott International plans 165 hotels in three years")
Marriott International will be coming up with five new hotels in the mid scale and resort & spa categories by December end this year. The hotel chain, which operates in an asset light model, has 80 operating hotels presently in the country under 14 different brand names.
A high end spa and resort will open in Goa and Jaisalmer each while Fairfield hotels will come up in Indore, Belgaum and Amritsar. Further, the group plans to open up 85 new projects in the next three years.
"We plan to reach out to 33 locations from the present 19 and the tertiary cities will play a big role in the growth of Marriott In India", the group's chief operations officer of Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China), Rajeev Menon said here.
In West Bengal, the hotel chain will open a second hotel in Siliguri in the northern part of the state. The Marriott group recently launched its luxury brand JW Marriott in Kolkata where it has claimed to have revceived 50 per cent occupancy rate in the very first month of its opening.
The hotel chain, which has become the worlds largest, after the acquisition of the Starwood group, is relying on the SME segment to drive its business vertical as well as bank on the travel and tourism sector to drive room occupancy.
"Also, luxury wedding is coming up in a big way and there is huge potential", general manager of JW Marriott Kolkata, Ranju Alex said. With an ambitious expansion plan in place, the group is also strengthening its customer loyalty base which it plans to expand to 5 million from the current base of 2 million. It's reward programme entails customers of various benefits across its global hotels portfolio. Menon said the group has grown by double digits in same store sales and profits in India in the last two years.
