Marriott eyes more hotels in north Africa

Marriott International is eyeing further expansion in North Africa, particularly Libya, as it strives to find growth areas in the global economic downturn, a senior executive said.
Marriott, which plans to open 29 hotels in the Middle East and Africa over the next five years, sees potential for Libya to become a tourist destination, Ed Fuller, president and managing director of Marriott Lodging International told Reuters in an interview.
Libya has emerged from isolation by the West since publicly renouncing weapons of mass destruction programmes in 2003. Foreign construction firms are overseeing a massive expansion in hotel capacity in the capital Tripoli to cater for an influx of foreign businessmen.
The US-based hotel operator, which like its rivals is contending with a cutback in travel globally, last month posted a second straight quarterly loss. Fuller said the company's main growth areas are China, India and the Middle East, but its move into north Africa was long overdue and he is watching that market closely.
Marriott, which operates the Marriott, Ritz Carlton and Renaissance hotels, plans to open a hotel in Algeria in 2010 and in Libya the following year.
"We wanted to be in North Africa for a long time...We are continuing to work on that northern coast because we see so much potential," Fuller told Reuters on the sidelines of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai.
"Libya...is a country that has potential to become a tourist destination as well as the commercial aspects of the oil and the city that could become even stronger as the country starts to grow," he said. Fuller also said room revenue from Marriott's Dubai hotels had fallen, but not as much as the almost 41 percent drop in revenue per available room (revPAR) estimated by consultant STR Global for Dubai hotels overall in March. RevPAR is a benchmark measure for the hotel industry.
"We've seen a decrease in revPAR but not that significantly," he said, declining to give a figure. "Occupancy rates are still relatively high compared to last year."
Last month, Marriott said its world-wide revPAR dropped nearly 20 percent in the first quarter and was expected to fall between 17 and 20 percent in the second quarter.