• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Shubhra Tandon

Mumbai, Aug. 25 India has outpaced both US and Asia in terms of growth for the $20-billion US-based hospitality giant Marriott International Inc.

In India, Marriott expects a revenue growth in the 10-15 per cent range for the current fiscal.

“Over the last five years we were growing on an average by 25-40 per cent in India. This year, when the US has gone into recession and Europe has slowed down, we are still going to grow in the double digit range,” Mr Rajeev Menon, Area Vice-President (India, Malaysia, Maldives & Pakistan) told Business Line.

“To me that’s a pretty good number in a depressed global market,” he said. In Asia, too, growth has been lower than in India.

Demand for business hotels in India is expected to remain strong with India’s favoured status as an outsourcing destination. This would increase business travel to the country as the pressure of recession or cost cutting happens in the US and Europe. “They (overseas clients) are going to look further at moving processes to Asia. That helps us,” he added.

Marriott currently operates six hotels in India. The company has signed deals for 24 more, of which 10 would be added by end of 2009 and the rest by 2011.

These new hotels include five of Courtyard (its mid-market brand) in Gurgaon (National Capital Region), Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Three JW Marriotts are coming up in Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Bangalore; one Marriott in Pune and one Marriott Executive Apartments in Gurgaon. Like other hospitality players in the country, Marriott also sees its future growth led by the mid-market segment.

Marriott earned over $150 million of revenues in 2007 from India. The group targets $170-$175 million in revenues in 2008, and about $250 million in 2009 as new properties are added.

International markets, especially Asia, West Asia and East Europe, have overtaken the US and Europe in terms of growth, said Mr Menon. While in the US the company’s revenue per available room or Revpar is in the range of two-three per cent, it is pushing between the six and eight per cent range in the international markets, he said.

Of this, a big proportion is coming from the Asia Pacific region. Asia currently contributes 10 per cent to the overall revenues of Marriott, while India (though growing faster) contributes less than 1 per cent. Asia is a big focus area for the hotel group, Mr Menon said.

More Stories on : Performance | Hotels

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line