Marriott signs 5 new hotels in West Bengal and Jharkhand

American hospitality chain Marriott International has announced the signing of 5 new hotels in West Bengal and Jharkhand. The hospitality company has signed this agreement with BeeKay Group.

Slated to open between 2024 and 2026, the agreement is expected to add over 700 rooms to Marriott International’s existing portfolio in the country. Marriott presently operates 131 hotels in the country.

The 5 new hotels signed are:

• Le Méridien Ranchi (Le Meridien’s debut property in East India) (There’s also a Courtyard by Marriott hotel coming up in Ranchi)
• Courtyard by Marriott Asansol
• Fairfield by Marriott Maithon
• Fairfield by Marriott Deoghar
• Fairfield by Marriott Ranchi

Rajeev Menon, President, Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China), Marriott International, said:

A big part of our growth story is what is happening in the secondary and tertiary markets. After Covid, as Indians started to really spend more time exploring their backyard, it’s now evident that markets such as Jharkhand represent huge opportunities

Bishnu Kumar Agarwal, CMD, Beekay Group, said he is eagerly looking forward to the opening of the first Courtyard by Marriott in Ranchi, followed by the other Marriott International hotels set to open in quick succession across Ranchi and the state of Jharkhand. He added:

There are no branded hotels in Maithon and Deoghar and the new hotels will also help put our state on the tourism map of India besides generating other socio economic opportunities.

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Menon added that Marriott currently operates 141 hotels across South Asia. He said:

In India, we have 131 operating hotels with over 26,000 rooms. In terms of number of rooms, we are the largest. We have another 88 hotels in the pipeline across South Asia. In India, we have 67 hotels under development. We are well on our way to get past 200 hotels here by 2025.

He said the growth is led by luxury resorts and secondary and tertiary markets but city hotels are also catching up ‘very strongly.’

Menon added:

Occupancies in Mumbai are about 80%. It’s all because the corporate business is coming back strongly. Our numbers are very strong. When you look across India, there is substantial demand growth. This is keeping in mind that international travel in the true sense hasn’t kicked in yet. There is some international travel but not to the levels that we were experiencing in 2019. A lot of the new supply of three to four years ago has all been absorbed. As a result, a lot of this pent up demand is going to get absorbed very quickly. India has a real opportunity over the next five to seven years.

Marriott has also signed two new JW Marriott properties – one each in Udaipur and Pahalgam. This means that there are 7 upcoming JW Marriott properties in India. They are:

• JW Marriott Udaipur
• JW Marriott Pahalgam
• JW Marriott Ranthambore Resort and Spa
• JW Marriott Chennai ECR Resort and Spa
• JW Marriott Agra Resort and Spa
• JW Marriott Hotel Goa
• JW Marriott Shimla Resort and Spa

Recently, Marriott announced the opening of JW Marriott Bengaluru Prestige Golfshire Resort and Spa.

Menon said the chain is aiming at 140 hotels in India by the end of this calender year with new hotels in Rishikesh, Goa and Bengaluru. Marriott recently announced the opening of Courtyard by Marriott Vadodara and Fairfield by Marriott Vadodara.

Meanwhile, Marriott has announced the opening of W Toronto.

Featured image by Marriott

What do you think of Marriott’s expansion plan in India? Let me know in the comments section below.

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