Marriott International is embarking on massive expansion, opening nine hotels in the Middle East before 2004, reported the Gulf News on Tuesday.
The chain, said the paper, 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 percent increase in hotels and 22 percent increase in rooms and the addition of one country over 2000,” said Paul Malcom, regional vice-president for sales and marketing for the UK and Middle East.
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, he said.
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, he said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
