Marriott Hotels committed to development in GCC |
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JEDDAH: The newly appointed vice president for sales and intermediaries at Marriott hotelsMarriott hotels
, Julius Robinson, stopped over in Jeddah recently as part of a 'meet the properties' inspection of the Middle East. "I wanted to come out and meet our travel agents and wholesale customers to understand what we could do to make business with us easier for them," he said. "Our goal is for us to be the easiest hotel group to do business with. I feel it's important for me to be here in person to meet them." Robinson's familiarization tour took him through the GCC countries -- his first time in the region -- and his first impression was that business in this part of the world was strong for MarriottMarriott. He said that each destination -- Dubai, Doha, Dammam and Riyadh had confirmed this idea and that he was confident that the business in the region would continue to grow. He added that MarriottMarriott had a deep vested interest in the region and needed all the distribution channels open and growing.
"I was very surprised with the level of commerce and how it is growing in the region," he said. "The Kingdom is very strong; there is clearly an opportunity for us to grow." He added that his impression of Jeddah was that the economics of the Kingdom were very strong and that business here was particularly outward looking.
Commenting on the development of the MarriottMarriott brand in Saudi Arabia, Robinson said that part of his brief for the visit was to gather information and share his findings with the development team. He noted that with the limited number of casual tourists to Saudi Arabia as compared with other parts of the GCC, the group would not be building resort properties. "We aim to give our guests ease of access to a familiar name and a comfortable place to do business," he said.
Robinson agreed that fueled by the growth of industry in the Kingdom and the development of business in the Emirates -- noting Abu Dhabi in particular -- the business traveller market was developing strongly.
On the future of hotel business in the current financial turbulence, Robinson opined that the last business recession was business led but this time consumers were leading. MarriottMarriott recently opened a hotel in Beijing and, said Robinson, hoped to double or triple the market over the next 10 years. "There is a lot of uncertainty in Europe and the US, but our balance of business remains the same which as a company overall is about 45 percent business and the rest leisure."
By Roger Harrison
© Arab News 2008
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