Hospitality major Marriott International is planning to add about 10 more hotels in India and neighbouring countries, during the first half of 2023, said Gaurav Singh, Market Vice President, South & East India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
“We are planning to open 13-15 hotels during 2023. In the first six months, we will add 6-7 hotels in India, two in Colombo and one in Dhaka,” he said.
According to him, the new hotels would come up in Bengaluru, Kochi, Trivandrum, Vizag, Hyderabad and Shillong under brand names such as Tribute, Westin and Courtyard.
On the international side, he said they were adding two more hotels with 460 keys (rooms) in Colombo (Sheraton and Courtyard) taking the total to four hotels.
In Dhaka, the hospitality major is operating three hotels and the fourth one will be added under the Sheraton brand. It will have 300 keys.
“The tourism industry has picked up both in the domestic market as well as in neighbouring countries. Bangladesh economy is doing well, so as the garment industry and it is good for the tourism sector. Sri Lanka came out of COVID very early and had good business in January and February,” he said.
Following the successful conversion of the erstwhile Sangam Hotel in Madurai into five-star category, the hospitality major replicated it in Tiruchirappalli recently under Courtyard by Marriott brand name with 108 keys.
Stating that the group operated 134 hotels in India and had 60 agreements in place, he said: “We are looking for properties in tier-II and tier-III cities as it offers good business. It can be resorts or hill stations. We follow asset light model and hence our investment is minimal,” he said.
