Marriott CEO Outlines Global Expansion Plans

On a three-day visit to several new hotels in the United Kingdom, J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International, Inc., announced global expansion plans for the company including Marriott’s global pipeline exceeding 770 hotels totaling more than 115,000 rooms.

Marriott also announced the U.K. grand openings of Marriott’s “new look” Courtyard by Marriott at Gatwick Airport and the Twickenham Marriott, home of English rugby. Marriott also participated in a tour of the construction site for the 116-room Lingfield Park Marriott & Country Club, scheduled to open in 2010, and a tour of the 245-room London St. Pancras, a Renaissance Hotel scheduled for completion in late 2010.

Marriott participated in two grand openings while in the U.K. –the 156-room Twickenham Marriott at Twickenham Stadium, home of English rugby, and the 218-room Courtyard by Marriott Gatwick Airport, the first example of Marriott’s contemporary “new look” for Courtyard in the United Kingdom.

Additional “new look” Courtyard properties are under construction in the U.K. and Northern Ireland at Aberdeen Airport and Belfast; both are scheduled to open in 2011. Looking across the Channel to Continental Europe, Marriott announced that Marriott would introduce the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel brand for extended-stay travelers in urban locations in Europe beginning in 2011.

As for the future, Marriott noted that with the upcoming openings of the Lingfield Park Marriott, London St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel and the expansion of the Courtyard brand in United Kingdom, Marriott will continue to have a strong presence in the region.