Good Essay About Marriott Hotels And Globalization

1) There are many reasons why Marriott International is globalizing, all of which have to do with their primary mission statement to improve their business and profit margins. As Marriott is a hotel management company, they understand the need to improve their business through increasing their customer base; by globalizing, they have access to locals within other foreign countries, or from visitors traveling to those countries. Sourcing efficiency is also a contributing factor in terms of workforce, as Marriott has the ability to franchise its efforts out to local workers and managers who can run the hotels from their respective countries.
The travel industry is particularly suited to globalization and expansion, as there is a global market for travel and accommodation. This becomes more true as time goes on, with developing countries slowly gaining international appeal through tourism (which Marriott is hoping to accomplish, with their hotel chains in the Middle East and African regions). As the number of people who travel increases through globalization and development, companies like Marriott look to accommodate this market increase by improving their access to these populations. Given the economic advantages and universal appeal of the hotel industry as a whole, Marriott can comfortably globalize to meet the demands of a particularly expanding market.
2) Marriott has recently been globalizing more specifically and directly in India, Africa and the Middle East, attempting to get into these emerging markets as globalization continues to allow for greater development, infrastructure and commerce. Marriott’s locational advantages to the areas in which it is globalizing, particularly in Africa, relates closely to the slowly improving development for those countries and their citizens in terms of industrialization and economics. With the rise of a new middle class in Africa, more people are traveling and spending money on accommodations – including the further development of South African business culture and travel/tourism.
Marriott, as a result, has started to globalize in that region in order to get in on the ground floor of this development. In countries such as India, other locational advantages include proximity to consumer base (i.e. the hotels can be closer to their new customers) and cheap labor, as well as the local boost international business provides local areas in terms of novelty and appeal.
3) Marriott is actualizing their globalization strategy in a number of ways – they have teamed with a number of companies to improve the ability for customers all around the world to secure lodging at their hotels in 70 countries. One particularly effective strategy is their alliance with Accenture, a web design company, which created a website globalization program to optimize their web content and translate their website to a number of local languages in various countries that have Marriotts within them.
One of the most effective avenues for globalizing is franchising – Marriot is in charge of more than half a million hotel rooms around the world, but only has control of .3% of them; the rest goes to franchising. With franchising, Marriott is able to expand its brand to a variety of new markets while minimizing risk by not taking on all of the financial burden itself, leaving the rest to the franchisee. Acquisitions are another method by which Marriott is globalizing, taking over established hotel chains in other countries (such as Renaissance Hotel Group, of which Marriott bought over 50% of its assets).

Works Cited

Whitney, Patrick (ed.). “Design for the Emerging Markets: Interview with Marriott
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Ali, Murat and Omur Demirel, Globalization and Internationalization. European Commission
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SyndiGate Media Inc. “Marriott: Globalization and the Tourism Industry.” Crown Publishing
PLC (2014). <http://www.4-traders.com/MARRIOTT-INTERNATIONAL-IN-14633490/news/Marriott--Globalization-and-the-tourism-industry-19010761/>.