Marriott International will enter the Macau market in 2015 with the planned openings of both JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton luxury hotels.
Marriott reached an agreement with Galaxy Entertainment Group for the two properties to be developed as part of the second phase of the Galaxy Macau development, whose first phase will include more than 50 restaurants, cafes and bars.
At almost 1,100 rooms and suites, the JW Marriott will be the world's largest in the brand, while the Ritz-Carlton will have 250 one- and two-bedroom suites, making it the first all-suite hotel within that brand. Combined, the hotels will have access to meetings space that will accommodate as many as 2,000 guests.
Marriott's looking to capitalize on a rapidly growing tourist market in Macau, the former Portuguese territory that's about a 45-minute boat ride from Hong Kong. Last year, Macau tourist spending, excluding gaming, jumped 20% to the equivalent of more than $4.7 billion, according to Macau's Statistics and Census Service. Visitor arrivals rose 12% to 28 million, while Macau's 95 hotels totaled 22,356 rooms, up 11% from a year earlier.
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