THE JW Marriott Marquis Dubai has released its 2015 full year sales results which revealed positive trends in 2015, despite challenging global conditions. The UAE's largest five-star hotel experienced an inventory increase of 22% during the year and yet occupancies across its 1608 rooms remained constant and in excess of 73%. The hotel also hit 100% occupancy on more than 45 occasions throughout 2015. JW Marriott Marquis Dubai General Manager, Bill Keffer said the results were a significant achievement considering the increase in supply of new luxury hotels regionally: "Supply in the city rose by 6.7%, whilst overall demand grew by only 4.3%. This is stark contrast to JW Marriott Marquis, which witnessed an increase in demand of more than 12% in 2015. As a result, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai continued to drive room revenues by 13% over the course of the year. These positive figures further cement our position as a market leader in the region." Throughout 2015, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai has continued to support the efforts of DTCM, working in collaboration with the Marriott Global Sales Network to generate large international group enquiries and attract visitors to Dubai. This sales drive is further bolstered by the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai sales team who are set to perform over 60 international sales trips across 26 different countries in the pursuit of attracting large corporate association and meeting groups to the hotel this year. A volume strategy will be the focus for 2016, with Group business playing a central role in the property's success. Despite the 2016 full year STR forecast painting a challenging picture of minus 9.8%, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai continues to perform at or above the current year forecast. "In 2015, the hotel exceeded 2014's group bookings by 17%, and already has 65% of 2016 groups booked. Excellent growth is coming from source markets like the US, UK, India and China for our hotel which is consistent with what is happening in the city as a whole. Group booking size has ranged from 20 to 1,000, fulfilling the Emirates Property Group's original vision for this hotel which was to provide a five-star venue where groups of up to 1000 people could eat, meet and sleep in one property." 2016 see's DTCM kicking off the year with an ‘always on' calendar of events to drive tourism and enhance the industry eco-system, forming a central part of the KPI to make Dubai a global events destination of choice. Supporting this KPI, operating 1,608 rooms and offering over 8,000 square meters of indoor and outdoor event space, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is the tallest in the world and flagship in the globally renowned Marriott International portfolio. Part of the JW Marriott luxury tier, Conference and Event facilities have entrenched the hotel as a leading destination, boosting the UAE's ability to cater for the luxury leisure and business markets. Beginning 2016 on a note of recognition, the hotel was awarded ‘Best City Hotel' by Food and Travel Arabia. Furthermore in the high performing food and beverage segment, the hotel added another 6 restaurant awards in 2016 to its resume of 44 industry and media awards. Diners and guests are clearly in agreement as the hotel moved 30 points in a year to a more favorable position on Trip Advisors top hotels in the city and multiple JW Marriott Marquis Dubai restaurants rank in the Trip Advisor Top 20 restaurants in Dubai.
