Marriott grows resorts portfolio through handle Sunwing Travel Group

Marriott International is expanding into all-inclusive resorts, adding almost 7,000 rooms found in the Caribbean and Central America in a maneuver highlighting how resort giants are plotting a restoration from the Covid-19 travel bust.

Marriott has struck a good deal to add 19 resorts owned by Sunwing Travelling Group, including properties found in Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica, due to the world’s major hotel enterprise bets that vaccination campaigns will unleash a good boom in vacation travelling.

“That is a transformative transaction that helps us really solidify our position in a segment we think will continue to grow rapidly,” said Tony Capuano, president of the global production, design and procedures services group at Marriott. “There is tremendous pent-up demand for those destinations.”

Marriott shares slipped 1.6 per cent to $127.01 on Tuesday in New York.

Toronto-established Sunwing will continue steadily to own the homes, including the 566-room Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Cancun and the Royalton Punta Cana Resort & Casino on the Dominican Republic. The accommodations will convert to Marriott’s Autograph Collection, a so-called soft manufacturer that lets independent accommodations gain access to corporate loyalty programmes and reservation devices. The deal a lot more than doubles Marriott’s all-inclusive portfolio, relating to a affirmation on Tuesday.

Caribbean hotels were strike hard by the pandemic, with occupancy prices falling to 30 per cent in 2020, downwards from 64 per cent in the prior yr, according to lodging info service provider STR. But proximity to US holidaymakers bodes very well for the region, especially compared to houses that will depend on corporate travel to spur recovery.

In the long term, the hotel industry needs business travellers to reunite on the highway. But for right now, pent-up demand for leisure travel around is the better bet to operate a vehicle a hotels rebound, according to a research note from Michael Bellisario, an analyst Robert W Baird & Co.

Marriott is navigating its pandemic restoration without its longtime innovator, chief executive Arne Sorenson. The business said lately that Mr Sorenson, who features led the company since 2012, would reduce his work schedule to endure challenging treatment for pancreatic cancer. Mr Capuano is one of two executives who are managing the company’s day-to-day procedures.

For Marriott, the cope with Sunwing marks the next phase in a foray that started out before Covid-19 rattled the global hospitality industry. The company splashed into all-inclusive resorts in the summertime of 2019, announcing plans for just two new resort properties, including a Ritz-Carlton on Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit.

Those deals represented a milestone for Marriott and the business model. For decades, all-inclusive resorts had been the domain of professional operators, which provided budget-minded travellers lodging, dishes and other items for an individual price.

As the idea gained recognition with holidaymakers, the world’s largest hotel companies determined that loyalty members who accrue points on business trips want to spend them at all-inclusive resorts.

The model is especially appealing to hotel companies now, when demand for leisure travel is outstripping bookings by corporate road warriors and conference-goers.

“The pandemic is a historic challenge to the travel industry, and we’re finally seeing a light at end of tunnel,” said Mr Capuano. “You want to anticipate to take full gain when demand comes roaring back again.”