2013 In Review

In 2013, Marriott International charted new territory.

We had a record year in hotel development, signing more than one hotel a day, positioning us to add 67,000 rooms to our system over the next few years and boosting our development pipeline to a record 195,000 rooms by year-end. Our worldwide management and franchise fees reached a record $1.5 billion. We accelerated our global expansion, in 2014 expecting to become the largest hotel company in Africa with our planned acquisition of Protea, and growing our footprint in Asia, Europe, The Americas and across the Middle East.

We launched new brands such as Moxy Hotels^SM, designed to attract the expanding Millennial generation as well as the young at heart, and introduced AC Hotels by Marriott^® in North America, a design-focused brand inspired by the fashion houses of Europe that appeals to younger business travelers. At the same time, we invested significantly in our flagship brand, Marriott Hotels, and in the EDITION brand, with its newest location opening recently to great fanfare in London. Future EDITION destinations include Miami, Fla.; New York, N.Y.; West Hollywood, Calif.; Gurgaon, India; Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; Sanya, China; Shanghai, China; Wuhan, China and Bangkok, Thailand.

These accomplishments are rooted in our core values and 86-year history as a successful hospitality company that welcomes everyone. We’ve learned that if we deploy the enthusiasm and skill of the best and brightest associates in the industry to innovate with an eye on tomorrow, we will continue to delight guests as the world’s most preferred lodging company.

This is an exciting time to be in the hotel business. Travel is expanding around the world, providing an economic boost and higher employment. In 2012, the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization reported that 1 billion trips were taken by people who traveled outside their borders, and our vision as an industry is to achieve 2 billion. One in 11 jobs globally (260 million) is supported by travel and tourism¹ and in the next 10 years the sector will account for 10 percent of global GDP. World and industry leaders, including those who sit on the World Economic Forum’s Governors of Aviation, Travel and Tourism Committee with me, increasingly see travel as a key to economic mobility and opportunity leading to prosperity. For our part, we recently signed onto President Obama’s initiative to help the long-term unemployed find jobs in the U.S. We think that more travel will create more jobs.

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