Marriott International added over 700 properties to its system in 2025. The expansion included the launch of the Outdoor Collection by Marriott Bonvoy, a portfolio designed to showcase accommodations like Marriott's Postcard Cabins brand. Hotels editor Christina Jelski sat down with Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano during the Americas Lodging Investment Summit late last month to talk about the group's outdoor hospitality strategy and other portfolio expansion as well as technology investments.
Q: What was the driving force behind Marriott's push into "outdoor hospitality?"
A: I think, broadly, this idea of local and authentic is what people want. When I started at the company, people would find out what I did, and they'd say, "Where's the best beach?" And to be sure, there are still people that [just want to] lay in the sun, but I think they're becoming a little bit of the minority. People want to explore. They want to immerse themselves in local culture: try new foods, try to pick up the language. And there is a large and growing segment of the public ... [who] really want these "back-to-nature" experiences. And I think you'll continue to see us scale it.
Q: Do you plan to also scale this concept internationally?
A: I think each of our continents is looking for their own version of that sort of thing. In Japan, there is this network of these rest stops -- they're called michi no eki. Think of them as kind of open-air markets at various stops along the highway system of Japan; there's about 100 of them, but each of them has a specialty. Japanese domestic travelers used to plan their vacations [around them], but there was no lodging. And so, we've partnered with a big Japanese rail company, and they're building very Japanese-style hotels at each of these 100 michi no eki so that people have lodging. All of them incorporate hiking trails. Some of them have natural hot springs. Safari camps, which we've started to open, are another great example, where somebody wants something different [from just] laying by the pool.
Q: Speaking of safari, what are the opportunities there?
A: From a tailwind perspective, again, it's this idea of wanting a different travel experience, and then you combine this with multigenerational travel planning. A bucket list [trip] for virtually every family out there is to be out in the middle of the Mara seeing the Big Five, so I think there's a lot of momentum around that, and there's an opportunity to do it at multiple price points, which plays really well to the construct of our portfolio.
And what we hear from our guests is, "What if you could cobble together multiple experiences?" So, for instance, we're working hard to find an opportunity for a lodge near the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda where you do the gorilla trek. So, imagine you could fly into Kigali, you spend a night at the Marriott there, then you go up to a safari lodge, you do the gorilla trek, then you come back down, you fly to the Mara, you go to the JW Marriott or The Ritz Carlton Masai Mara [Safari Camp]. You [could also add a] trip to a Tanzanian project we're working on with the world's largest black rhino preserve. And then you could pivot to India, where there are some opportunities in some of the tiger preserves for lodges.
Related: Anthony Capuano was On the Record with his industry outlook for 2023 and 2024.
Q: There's been talk of a widening gap within the luxury segment, with ultraluxury travelers pushing spending to new levels. How is Marriott thinking about that?
A: If you look at the stratification of our luxury portfolio, we've got extraordinary brands like Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis and Edition and W and JW Marriott. But we also have our partnership with Bulgari, and we have Ritz-Carlton Reserve, which are positioned in a way to take care of that ultrahigh-net-worth segment. We're building this portfolio of ultrahigh-net-worth travelers, using not a traditional sales approach but more of a client-development approach, where we are their travel advisor. We're keeping them abreast of new developments and new projects and new experiences that are made available.
Q: Where are the growth opportunities for all-inclusives?
A: We're up to almost 40 all-inclusive resorts now in the Caribbean and Latin America. We continue to see strong demand and steady growth of that portfolio, and I think we're quite intrigued about some other global destinations where that type of travel and the appeal of that all-inclusive offering is becoming more and more common, whether that's Southeast Asia, some Middle Eastern markets or some Eastern European markets.
Q: How is AI changing your approach to technology?
A: I sort of think about AI in three buckets. I think about the property level, and what we can do to both drive operating efficiency and create capacity for our our associates to have more time to personally engage with the guests. Second, I think about it in terms of being a go-to for broader travel planning. We want to be involved at many more touch points on the travel journey. And I think AI allows us to do that in a more significant way than we ever have. And then the third bucket is really around above-property efficiency [at the corporate level].