Marriot International plans expansion in RI

Marriot International plans expansion in RI

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali

Worldwide hospitality company Marriot International said that the slump in the tourism industry in Indonesia would not discourage its plan to expand in the country, saying that there was still more room for growth here.

"It is true that hotel occupancy rates in Indonesia have been low since the economic crisis. They have yet to recover. We won't see any new international hotels in the coming years. So, while the supply remains steady, demand will increase," Geoff Garside, Marriot International's senior vice president for the Asia- Pacific, told reporters on Monday.

Marriot International currently operates and franchises hotels such as the Marriot, J.W. Marriot, the Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn and Ramada International with some 1,600 lodging properties in the U.S. and 66 other countries and territories.

"We have talked with many people in the hotel industry in Indonesia. And in 3 or 4 years, there will be more Marriot hotels in Indonesia," Garside said.

In Indonesia, Marriot International currently operates 3 hotels, namely J.W. Marriot in Jakarta and Surabaya, and the Ramada Bintang in Bali.

Garside said the ongoing Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) conference would encourage vacationers to return to the country.

Meanwhile, the company reported strong growth in 2002 in terms of profits and sales despite the global economic slump.

Kent Maury, Marriot's vice president for sales and marketing for the Asia-Pacific region, said that the company generated US$19 billion in system-wide sales in 2002.

Maury added that sales through the Internet had been growing significantly, with 9 percent of all bookings in 2002 generated through the Internet with a value of $1.1 billion. This was nearly twice the $750 million generated in 2001.

Garside said that the key to the company's strong growth was that the company continued to develop hotels in gateway cities around the world.

"If you have good control in gateways cities in a country, you have the opportunity to control second hotels," he explained.

Marriot, Garside said, was looking to robust expansion with plans to add between 25,000 to 30,000 hotel rooms worldwide annually in 2003 and 2004. At the end of 2002, Marriot had more than 50,000 rooms worldwide.