Business
Marriott International Provides Business Update Amidst The Rapidly Evolving Coronavirus Situation
Company to host call with the investment community on March 19, 2020 at 8:30am ET BETHESDA, Md., March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott International, Inc.
About this update from Marriott International
[{"type":"text","content":"Company to host call with the investment community on March 19, 2020 at 8:30am ET\n\n\nBETHESDA, Md., March 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) today provided the following business update amidst the rapidly evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nArne M. Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International (\"Marriott\" or the \"company\"), said, \"The travel industry is being impacted in unprecedented ways by COVID-19. As the virus and efforts to contain it have spread around the world, demand at our hotels has dropped significantly. We are working tirelessly to take care of our associates, our guests, our owners and our other key stakeholders. The situation is changing by the day and there is still tremendous uncertainty, but we feel it is important to share an update on some of what we have seen to date and describe key measures we are executing to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. While we cannot predict today how long this crisis will last, we know that it will get behind us. And when it does abate, lodging demand will rebound. We are confident that our company has the expertise and the resources to weather this crisis.\" \nBUSINESS PERFORMANCE UPDATE\n2020 got off to a solid start. Global RevPAR1 growth in the first two months of the year was down 0.3 percent worldwide and up 3.2 percent excluding Asia Pacific. For January and February, RevPAR increased 3.5 percent in North America, with full-service hotels particularly strong, up 4.4 percent. Europe RevPAR was up 3.2 percent, while Caribbean and Latin America increased 1.2 percent and Middle East and Africa RevPAR was flat for the first two months. Asia Pacific RevPAR declined 24.7 percent through February, with Greater China down 52.1 percent and the rest of Asia Pacific down 8.4 percent because of the COVID-19 situation in that region. \nToday there are very early signs of improvement in Greater China, as workers return to their jobs. The number of closed hotels in Greater China has declined from over 90 hotels a month ago to under 30 today. While occupancy levels in Greater China are still under 15 percent today, this is an improvement, and trend lines are pointing in the right direction. \nIn the rest of the world, where the crisis is much more recent, the trend lines are still negative...