Marriott earmarks 16 new projects for Thailand, NATION

KEN YWIN
The Nation (Thailand)
07-19-2000
MARRIOTT International has earmarked 16 new projects for Thailand as
part of its five-year global plan to add 1,000 hotels and 175,000 rooms
by 2003.

"Just recently, we opened our 2,000th property, the new Tampa Marriott
Waterside convention resort hotel," said Jan G Heesbeen, Marriott's director
of marketing, Bangkok.

The 16 new projects are still under negotiation but Heesbeen stressed,
"We're definitely going to make our presence felt in the main destination
points of the country throughout this year and the next."

This ties in with the planned opening of a civilian airport in Hua
Hin, he said.

Marriott International operates two hotels in Bangkok - the Marriott
Royal Garden Riverside and the J W Marriott Sukhumvit with a total of 850
rooms.

The occupancy rates for the Royal Garden and the J W are hovering
around 75 per cent and 82 per cent respectively: "A combined 79 per cent
rate for last year and this could remain the same for 2000," Heesbeen said.

"The Royal Garden Riverside, pioneered by Bill Heinecke five years
ago, withstood the economic crisis quite nicely while J W [Marriott] had
a tougher going as it had opened only two years ago. Those were times when
travel agencies who bought in American dollars made money while those who
had taken loans in dollars lost due to the baht devaluation," said Heesbeen.
The "dollar-loan mess" has taken three years to clean up.

As exchange rates became increasingly volatile, hotels that could keep
pace survived the crisis.

"At present, quoting in US dollars is the best safety net for us and I
believe that the baht at 40-42 to the dollar is a stable benchmark," he
said.

Representing the hotels at international meetings, Heesbeen has been a
prominent figure in his traditional prarachathan attire.

"We must set all our destinations on equal par and sell Thailand and
not Bangkok, not a hotel and not one particular location," underlined the
Dutch marketing director who has been a Marriott man for most of his life.

"Give the potential tourists a dual-destination choice - Bangkok and
Hanoi/Phnom Penh/Rangoon/Vientiane and opening more markets will help us
develop faster, even more than Kuala Lumpur."

He said the Riverside and Sukhumvit hotels targeted different sections
of the market.

"The former is mainly travellers and the latter businessmen. The five
new Sukhumvit corporate hotels' businesses are moving to the Riverside
as more conventions and incentive packages are being offered. Marriott
is growing every day. Every different brand of ours sits in a market where
it fits."

He admits to having a soft spot for Thailand and underlines the
structure of "looking after the employees so that in turn they'll look
after the customers. We as farang are here to train and not to stay", he
emphasised.

"We're our own worst enemy. We mostly talk negative about Thailand and
Bangkok like the pollution. But there are several positive aspects which
are ignored."

He is proud of the fact that two "truly Thai hotels are among the top
five Marriott hotels in the world".

Despite the economic crisis, Thailand persisted with developing
infrastructure projects such as the skytrain and the underground train
and this was a reflection of the confidence of the Thai people, which in
turn has sent a clear message to foreign investors, Heesbeen said.

To combat future crises, Heesbeen said consolidations are taking place
to set up alliances among airlines and hotels and there have been five
to six major conglomerates conceived on the Internet, a development which
is making travel agents work harder. But change must be embraced with the
advent of the Internet, he said.

"We must put more emphasis on our marketing communications and the Net
provides us a comfort level."

The prospects for tourism in Thailand, he said, are enormous.
"However, the government must work to co-ordinate the forces of TAT [Tourism
Authority of Thailand], Tica [Thailand Incentive and Convention Association],
THA [Thai Hotels Association] and Mice [Meetings, Incentives, Conventions
and Exhibitions]. The co-ordination must work hand in hand with a commercial
body."

Heesbeen said he dislikes discounts and urged all hotels, big or
small, to work together and take into account the macro perspective.



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