The U.S. hotel operator Marriott International plans to open up to 20 hotels in Russia by 2015, Head of Russia's Transstroibank Petr Chitipakhovyan, which partly finances the project, said on Friday.
"Our plan with Marriott is to build up to 20 hotels, three or four every year," Chitipakhovyan told reporters, without specifying overall volume of investment in the deal but said that a 208 room hotel in Irkutsk launched in November 2011 under the Courtyard by Marriott brand cost 45 million euros.
Marriott plans to open hotels under its brand in Nizhny Novgorod and in the Republic of Tatarstan Volga region, in Omsk in West Siberia, in Kemerovo in East Siberia and in Rostov in Russia's south, the Transstroibank head added.
Marriott International Vice President Peter Steger said the company also expected to build hotels in Krasnoyarsk in East Siberia and in Sochi and Krasnodar in Russia's south with other investors to rise its overall number or rooms in Russia to 8,000 by 2015.
The U.S. hotel group currently operates 14 hotels in Russia.
