How Marriott is driving growth in LatAm, Caribbean

Marriott International is gaining ground in Latin America and the Caribbean region through a variety of acquisitions and development plans. Just this week, the company announced it signed a deal with international developer AB Living Group to add three all-inclusive resorts in Mexico to its All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy portfolio: Almare, a Luxury Collection All-Inclusive Resort, Isla Mujeres, opening in 2024; JW Marriott All-Inclusive Costa Mujeres opening in 2026; and W All-Inclusive Costa Mujeres opening in 2026.

Marriott in LatAm & Caribbean

This deal follows several other recent agreements for the region, including another one with AB Living announced in early November to bring the St. Regis brand to Costa Mujeres in early 2025. In late October, Marriott signed a management agreement with Grupo Puntacana and MAC Hotels to begin construction on the W All-Inclusive Punta Cana in Uvero Alto, an adults-only, all-inclusive property in the Dominican Republic. This hotel will be the first W Hotels property in the country and one of the first W All-Inclusive resorts in the world.

Brian King, Marriott's president for Caribbean and Latin America, called the company’s pipeline in the region a “fairly strong mix” of resorts—“resorts continue still to have strong growth”—all-inclusive and luxury development. 

“What's nice about our portfolio is if you've got the land, we've got the brand,” he said, but noted that the strength of leisure travel is encouraging caution. “Owners want to make sure that if they have an opportunity to build in a resort or destination market, they're being very thoughtful. ‘Do I need a full-service? Do I need an all-inclusive? Should it be luxury? Maybe I need something just by the airport and a Courtyard will work fine.’” 

As of late October, Marriott had 312 properties in 37 Caribbean and Latin American markets across 21 of its 30 existing brands.

The 31st Brand

In October, Marriott announced its 31st brand through an acquisition of Mexico’s Hoteles City Express brand portfolio, marking the company’s entry into the affordable midscale segment in the country and broadening its focus to urban development. The deal is likely to close by early 2023, and will bring the total to 500 properties in the region.

King said City Express is designed to scale in smaller markets, as well as urban markets and suburban markets. The company, he explained, saw a “hole” in its portfolio for moderate-tier travelers. “We've just never really had a product in that space,” he said. Marriott’s local team in Mexico had developed what King calls “a very friendly relationship” with Luis Barrios, founder and CEO of Hoteles City Express. “He's really a wonderful entrepreneur who understands the whole hotel business deeply,” King said. The brand is largely concentrated in Mexico, he said, so the conversation started in that market before expanding into an acquisition. The process began in late 2020 and took about 16 months to be finalized.

“We look for partners that have a really strong cultural fit with us,” King said, adding that Barrios and his team have that: “They deeply understand the select-service segment—as do we. They deeply understand their market, they understand their customer and also the working relationship, the collaborative nature.” Marriott will be able to take the Hoteles City Express brand “to the next level” through its sales channels, development engine and global reach, he said. 

“This is a great opportunity for Marriott to be a student, not always the teacher—to learn from somebody who's founded a brand, created it and [grew] it,” King said, noting similarities between the City Express deal and the 2011 deal to acquire the Spanish AC Hotels brand or the 2012 deal to manage the Gaylord Hotels brand. The company, he said, grows by both creating new brands and acquiring existing ones—“But we don't do it without a reason to do it.” 

Marriott has no immediate plans to rebrand any of the City Express properties to legacy Marriott brands. “If it was just about changing flags, we already have our own flags,” King said. The company was more interested in the locations where City Express has a presence and gaining ground through the acquisition. “They have a lot of markets we're not in at all and very little overlap, frankly.” City Express has a “completely integrated development machine,” he continued, covering everything from land to global design, architecture and procurement. “Their ability to very quickly identify a site, build a hotel, fit it and then staff it and open it is quite, quite remarkable. It's something we can learn from them as well, too.” 

Next Steps

Since the new brand was announced, King said the phone of Laurent de Kousemaeker, Marriott’s chief development officer in the Latin America and the Caribbean region, has been “ringing off the hook” with developers looking to get into key markets with the right brand at the right price point. Marriott, in turn, is still eyeing a number of markets throughout the region— “anything that has got great beach locations,” King said. “Any owner who has the opportunity or has a land bank in those markets, we would definitely want to partner with them.” 

As travel has rebounded after the nadir of the pandemic, top destinations like Mexico and Puerto Rico are reporting record-breaking tourism, King said. “It took a while for Central and South America to start picking back up—places like Peru and São Paulo, Rio—but that's all changed in the last six months. Those markets are on fire, too.” 

As such, King predicted the resort market will continue to grow “aggressively” over the next five to 10 years. “There just doesn't seem to be a slowdown in that,” he said. He also sees more development opportunities in some of the larger urban markets. “As the economy has started to recover quite nicely, we think South America still has lots of opportunity. It's a market I'd like to continue to see more growth in.”