Marriott International plans to almost double its workforce in the Middle East and Africa over the next three years.
The company expects to add 30,000 more people to its regional workforce of 41,000 as new properties are opened, Marriott’s regional president Alex Kyriakidis said. About 6,000 of the new jobs will be in Dubai.
“Within three years, we are going to grow to 90,000 rooms and we are going to need another 30,000 associates’’ across the region, Kyriakidis said. “This company will be one of the most significant employers in the region and particularly in the UAE.”
Marriott currently has about 52,000 rooms in the region, according to Bloomberg.
Kyriakidis predicts hotel occupancy in Dubai will average 76 percent in 2016 with an average room rate of about US$200 a night. Any market with such numbers is “a healthy market and a profitable market,” he said.