Marriott International revealed its plans to expand its presence in the Middle East and Africa region by 50% within the next five years as the company continues its diversification and growth strategy in the region. This would increase Marriott’s MEA portfolio to nearly 370 hotels.
In the last 12 months alone, the hotel company signed more than 30 properties to its portfolio and added more than 5,000 rooms in the region—which the company estimates will attract an investment of up to USD $1.8 billion.
Commenting on the accelerated expansion, Marriott International president and managing director, Middle East and Africa Alex Kyriakidis said the company is focused on building synergy with the property owners as the hospitality market matures.
“We remain focused on working with our owners to identify synergies and increase efficiencies across hotels by implementing shared services, remote solutions, complexing of hotels where relevant and possible and by bringing state-of-the-art technology to leverage scale, ultimately improving profitability,” Kyriskidis explained.
Through the upcoming expansion plans, the company noted that it will increase the number of rooms to more than 80,000 across 21 brands including the introduction of new brands such as Edition, a luxury brand that will launch in Abu Dhabi later this year; Elements and AC Hotels. The five-year plan also includes plans to add close to 30,000 jobs in the region.
Currently, Marriott operates over 30 luxury brand hotels in the region with more than 10,000 rooms, In terms of growth of upscale brands such as Courtyard by Marriott, Aloft, Element and Residence Inn by Marriott, it accounts for more than 40% of the hotels cued to open in the next five years.
While upper-upscale brands like Marriott Hotels, Marriott Executive Apartments and Sheraton are expected to account for 30% of the hotels slated to open through the development plans, a statement from the company noted.
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