Marriott reveals India expansion plans

MUMBAI: US-based Marriott International brand, now attached to six hotels in India,  would take it to 21 hotels by 2010, said Marriott Lodging International's President and Managing Director Ed Fuller.

"The Indian hotel industry is robust now. It is growing, expanding and developing. There is a lot of wide space to be filled in," Marriott Lodging International's President and Managing Director Ed Fuller told reporters here on Friday.

Fuller, here to announce management control agreement with six more upcoming hotels, said the requirement for hotel rooms has gone up significantly in India in recent years riding high on a booming economy.

Fuller said Marriott International brand is attached to six hotels now and it would more than triple to 21 hotels by end of 2010.

"India's economic growth is phenomenal and as this story is being drafted across the region, the market is expanding," he said, adding, India is being seen as an `equally strong' market as that of China.

"Chinese market is growing a little faster than Indian market now. We, However, see both of them as equally strong market," Fuller said.

He said room tariffs in India are picking up and they `are encouraging and will continue'.

JW Marriott had earlier announced such agreement with nine hotels. The new six hotels are coming up in Chennai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune, Fuller added.