Marriott opens regional and sales offices in Mumbai

Mumbai, Nov 6 (UNI) Responding to the growth of India as a destination and potential customer base, Marriott International today annouced the opening of its Area Operations and Global Sales offices here today.

''Opening offices is a logical next step for us. Mumbai is a dynamic city and we see tremendous future potential in India,'' said executive VP Asia-Pacific, Geoff Garside.

The Area Operations headed by Rajeev Menon will be responsible for 14 existing hotels and 15 in the pipeline across India, Pakistan, Maldives and Malaysia.

The Regional Sales Office based in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai will be led by Anant Joshi and will promote the global J W Marriott chain to outbound and domestic Indian tourists.

''We try and find out what the Indian traveller is looking for when they go abroad. We also organize annual road shows to interact with travel agents,'' explained Anant about the profile of his office.

In India, the Marriott International has six hotels offering 3,000 rooms with a majority of their clientelle being business travellers.

The revenues for the third quarter during the fiscal year of 2007 grew by 32 per cent with USD 150 million expected by the end of the fiscal year. Marriott expects a growth of 20 per cent during 2008 which will lead to a profit of USD 200 million in 2008.

Marriott International plans to open 17 new hotels by 2010.

Worldwide Marriott has 3,000 hotels with sales of USD 12.2 billion during year 2006.

UNI