Keynote Address

'India is a significant market for us'

Edwin D Fuller, president and MD, Marriott International

Excerpts

The world is changing dramatically in this business. In 1990, we had only 16 international hotels. This year we will celebrate the opening of our 3,000th hotel - the JW Marriott Beijing. Marriott has over 20 brands in the market, of which only nine are international brands. We are primarily a management company. Our focus is on development with partnerships throughout the world.

These are long-term and long-lasting relationships. India is a significant market for us in the worldwide scenario and is a representative story. Many of our partners from the US are looking at the Indian market. My first trip to the country was in 1994, and we opened our first hotel here - the Goa Marriott Resort - in 1999. We are targeting 32 hotels under operation in the country by end of 2010 and beginning 2011.

Currently in India, there are 20 hotels under construction. We are using our full service hotels - the Marriott and the Renaissance - to enter tertiary markets. We are seeing changes in source markets as well. In 2007, we have seen 898 million visitors in global tourism, a 6.2 per cent growth over 2006. According to WTTC, this will continue to grow at a significant pace. Consider travel figures. China crossed 40 million outbound visitors, even though a majority went across mainland China to Macau. India itself saw seven million outbound tourists. India is a global travel customer according to WTTC and Indians are excellent customers for our hotels - both domestic and international properties.

Since I have entered the business, I have seen several business cycles. There are concerns around the current scenario, but this is just another cycle of growth. There are opportunities in India, and as hoteliers, we bring significant advantages to hotel owners. There are three things I would like to focus on. Firstly, our involvement with the internet. We see a 20 per cent growth in this. Our site has accessibility in various regional languages too.

Secondly, we share a very strong relationship with the GDS and 20 per cent of our sales are through this. Also, the Marriott guest loyalty programme - the Marriott Rewards - has 28 million members which gives us an edge. Marriott also has a commitment to the community that is supported by its spirit to serve. We work with children and on other programmes on a global basis. Our growth in India is also a growth story about people. We use expatriates but that number today is less than one per cent of the total employees, most of which is local talent.