| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 15/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 33 |
| Copyright: Other |
Development plans
Marriott boosts Middle East and Africa profile
Report by LOIS JONES
MARRIOTT International is to open four hotels in the Middle East and Africa this year and a further three next year.The addition of seven new hotels will give the company a portfolio of 27 hotels in the region.
First to open will be the 178-room Renaissance Tunis Hotel in Tunisia this July.
The 216-room Jordan Valley Marriott Resort will open this summer at the Dead Sea in Jordan and the 310-room Taba Marriott Hotel and Beach Resort will open in the Red Sea, Egypt this autumn.
A fourth hotel, the Petra Plaza, in Jordan, is undergoing extensive renovation and will be rebranded the Petra Courtyard by Marriott later this year. Three other hotels are currently under construction in the region.
The 347-room Marriott Mirage City Resort Cairo in Egypt, 160-room Courtyard byMarriott Beirut Galaxy in Lebanon and the 150-room Madinah Marriott in Saudi Arabia.
Paul Cerula, senior vice-president, international sales said that the new properties are part of a strategy to expand Marriott International’s presence in the region’s major gateway cities, commercial centres and established resort destinations and then expand into secondary markets.
He said he is “in active negotiation” to buy other properties in the region.
“We have made a lot of progress over the past 20 years and are very excited, for example, by our growing presence along the Red Sea in Egypt,” he said.
“When the Taba Marriott opens later this year after an expansion project that will double its size, it will be our third resort on the Red Sea, along with our Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh resorts,” said Cerula.
Under expansion: the opening of the Taba Marriott in the Sharm el Shiekh with be the hotel group’s third property in the Red Sea region