Marriott sets out vision for Middle East
Key markets of UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia to share majority of 60,000 new rooms recently announced
Following Marriott International’s announcement this week that they would be opening 15 new luxury properties across the region, the company’s president for the Middle East and Africa said yesterday that despite some oversupply concerns, he sees huge opportunity in the market.
“Whilst some of the Middle Eastern markets appear to be oversupplied, the fact of the matter is … the ratio of branded rooms to population is exceptionally small,” Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director of Marriott International, Middle East & Africa, said.
Speaking in an interview with Kyriakidis said that Marriott would add 60,000 rooms across the region between now and 2022.
The majority of these, he said, would be in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
Regarding Saudi Arabia, Kyriakidis said “there is a pentup demand for travel”, adding that “you have religious tourism, which has an exponential growth trajectory with the Muslim population growing around the world, in addition to domestic travel.” “The kingdom is a huge focus for us, particularly the holy cities,” he said.
Marriott operates 11 hotels across the kingdom, which has a population of 31 million, including two Ritz-Carlton properties.
In the UAE, Kyriakidis sees Marriott International diversifying its business away from the “upper upscale” brands such as Marriott, Le Meridien, Sheraton, and Westin. “We see lots of opportunity in the select segment of the market, to compliment the upper upscale and luxury, and make Dubai more affordable, particularly for families to visit,” he said.
The select segment is a term Marriott International uses to describe its midscale offering, including brands such as Courtyard Hotels, Four Points, and Aloft Hotels.
Kyriakidis added that the intention was to “diversify our product within the UAE.”
For Egypt, the senior official noted that travel to the country had been “marred by safety and security concerns.”
Nevertheless, he said that the company is seeing “a significant uptake in travel to the country now by virtue of the fact that its currency is not dollar pegged.”
About Abu Dhabi, he said the capital is “beginning to rethink its strategy about how to generate economic activity, and clearly leisure and tourism is at the heart of that.”
President and managing director of Marriott International, Middle East & Africa