Marriott International Bullish On India Growth, Booming Religious Tourism

The growth in the India operations will be driven by the domestic population as people prioritise luxury travel as the economy grows, according to Rajeev Menon of Marriott International Inc.

The president of Asia Pacific (excluding China) highlighted the growing interest in the premium hospitality segment and booming religious tourism. He said India has been one of the best-performing markets and expects the trend to continue in 2024.

"Covid-19 has reaffirmed the power of travel, so people are prioritising travel over other day-to-day expenses," Menon told NDTV Profit.

Rajeev Menon (Source: Marriott International website)

Menon explained that the luxury hotel major sees opportunity in terms of growth as new destinations open up or become more accessible. "You will see our partners going and deploying much more of their development costs into these new destinations."

He sees "great opportunity" and is optimistic over the booming religious tourism in the country, underscoring that Marriott is in talks of bringing luxury hotels to several key religious destinations in the country.

"We will open the Katra Marriott, which is on its way to Vaishno Devi. We have a number of hotels already operating in Amritsar. We signed a (deal for a) Marriott hotel in Ayodhya last year," Menon said.

He pointed out that Marriott is in talks with its partners in terms of other pilgrim destinations across the country and as these deals get signed, it will make announcements.

Marriott is the largest operator of rooms in India, with over 28,000 rooms open in 148 hotels and other 75-odd projects under construction, according to Menon.

Marriott has signed an agreement with Oberoi Realty Ltd. and its subsidiary, Incline Realty, to develop two new luxury hotels at Oberoi properties in Maharashtra's Thane district and Mumbai's Borivali region.

Both the hotels will consist of 280 rooms each and with these two announcements, Marriott will have close to 1,100 rooms with Oberoi Realty, Menon said.

The JW Marriott hotel, Thane Garden City, is expected to be completed by 2027, while the other hotel, Mumbai Marriott Hotel Sky City, is expected to be developed by 2025.