Marriott's president bullish about India recovery | Economic Times

India is showing the fastest recovery for Marriott International among 22 countries in the Asia Pacific region, excluding China, said a top executive of the world's largest hotel chain.Of the 22 new hotels that Marriott has signed over the last 18 months in South Asia, 15 will be in India. Marriott is the world's largest by number of rooms. In India, it has 125 hotels totalling around 27,000 rooms across 36 cities."India is definitely on its way to recovery. In the second quarter of this year, India's revenue per available room (RevPAR) was down 74% compared to 2019 for Marriott hotels, given what the country had to deal with in terms of the humanitarian crisis and the real escalation of Covid-19 cases," Rajeev Menon, Marriott's president for Asia Pacific (excluding China), said in an interview with ET."Now the difference in decline in RevPar against 2019 is in the early 40s. In the last couple of months, India is definitely well above 50% occupancy for us. I'm optimistic that we will increase occupancies in India in the months to come," he said.86544433The new JW Marriott hotels in India will come up in locations such as Goa, Ranthambore, Agra and Shimla, Menon said, adding that the team has also signed a W hotel in Jaipur. "We are well on our way to 200 hotels by 2025," he said, adding that Marriott will open another three hotels before the end of the year in India followed by eight hotels next year."We are seeing growth across segments. We are seeing considerable growth in luxury, particularly in resort destinations," he said. According to Menon, the chain is seeing strong growth in select service brands, such as Fairfield and Courtyard by Marriott. In the premium segment, Marriott is seeing growth for Sheraton and Meridien. Menon said more hotel owners have been asking for conversion opportunities after the Covid-19 outbreak. "We are doing a considerable number of conversions. That's well north of about 25-30% across Asia," he said.According to Menon, the one thing that is playing in India's favour is the country's large population. "I'm bullish about India's recovery going into 2022, as long as the virus remains contained and considering the vaccination rates and precautions being taken," he said. "We see a strong demand for weddings, other social activities. With the large domestic base, you will see India come back reasonably strongly."He said recovery for Marriott in the US and Greater China has been quite strong."China has recovered at a much faster pace. In July this year, our RevPAR there was 9% better than 2019," he said. The hospitality sector was also among the hardest hit in terms of job losses. Menon said for every individual that the chain had to displace, it worked "hard" in partnering with some of its global partners, such as Amazon and Dell, to help its associates find jobs."As recovery starts, we see a lot of our alumni coming back. We are very comforted by that and we are bringing them back one by one," he said.