Marriott, Starwood merger to create 6,000 UAE jobs

Marriott International will create around 6,000 new jobs in the next three years in the UAE, Alex Kyriakidis, president for the Middle East and Africa, said in Dubai on Sunday.
Last Friday, Marriott International closed its $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, bringing together its Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz Carlton brands with Starwood's Sheraton, Westin, W and St Regis properties.
After the acquisition, 30 hotel brands now fall under the Marriott International to create the largest hotel chain in the world, with more than 5,800 properties and 1.1 million rooms in more than 110 countries - more than one out of every 15 hotel rooms around the globe.
Kyriakidis said the UAE would be Marriott International's largest Mena market by 2020 following the merger.
The combined portfolio of 52 hotels will grow to 80 with 23,300 rooms in the next four years in the UAE, he informed during a media briefing.
"We will be the number one hospitality operator for Expo 2020. That's a huge opportunity for us, the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and their stakeholders," he explained.
In the Middle East and Africa, the company's newly combined portfolio has 238 hotels and 51,877 rooms in 30 countries. "We have effectively doubled in size overnight [from 25,000 rooms to almost 52,000 rooms]," the executive said.
In the pipeline, the company has a further 155 hotels and 37,677 rooms by 2025. It will also introduce five new brands to the region, namely Bulgari, EDITION, AC by Marriott, Element and Fairfield Inn. By 2025, Marriott International will be in 38 countries, with almost 400 hotels, and is well on its way to 100,000 rooms in the region.
The completion of Marriott's acquisition of Starwood enhances its position as the world's largest hotel company.
Marriott now eclipses Hilton Worldwide's 773,000 rooms and the 766,000 rooms that are part of the Intercontinental Hotels Group family, according to STR Global.
Kyriakidis informed that loyalty and rewards programmes would remain the same. Programmes for Marriott and Starwood would continue to run separately until we merge them in the next couple of years, he added.
"We have combined the world's best loyalty programmes of more than 85 million members worldwide. Members can now link their accounts for immediate status matching," he concluded.
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com