Tourism Market Analysis of Marriott International

 Executive Summary 

This study will discuss the market of the industry of tourism. Market competition is one of the prime factors that can impact a business. The study will consider the organisation Marriott International as a sample. With effective theory and models the study will be aligned. The pros and cons related to the market position of the organisation Marriott international will be covered in thai study.    

Chapter one 

This study is aimed to evaluate the market position of a business of tourism. Tourism is one of the growing industries of the world. The study will be developed with respect to the organisation Marriott International This is one of the renowned organisations of the sector tourism. The study will evaluate the marketing factors of the tourism industry with STP model and Porter's Five Forces model. The issues of the market position and the market competition will be evaluated in this study.    

Chapter Two 

In the tourism and hospitality sector Marriott international can be considered as one of the renowned organisations. According to the corporate information of the organisation the organisation started its journey from 1927 by the founders of the organisation J. Willard and Alice Marriot  and since then the organisation has been serving with a reputation in the tourism industry. The organisation proportions the core values to operate the business. The organisation became able to hold their market position in the tourism industry as the organisation does not compromise with the quality of service provided by the organisation to their customers. The organisation is also adapting the morder strategies and trends which are contributing to the contemporary tourism market. The organisation also considers the social impact and the sustainability practices to operate the business.  The organisation has launched a program named Serve 360 which is the initiative of the organisation towards  sustainability. The organisation also believes in the empowerment of their stakeholders and the human resources (Marriott, 2025). 

Fig: Marriott International 

Source: (Staff, 2024)

Chapter Three 

For the analysis of the market position of the organisation needs to evaluate the behavior of the customers also (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2023). With the help of STP analysis the market of the organisation Marriott will be evaluated in this segment of the study. S stands for segmentation, T stands for targeting and P stands for positioning (Kampamba, 2015).  

The first segmentation of the target market needs to be done with respect to the geographical position of the customer. As the culture and the taste of the person depends on the geographical location where he or she lives. The organisation Marriott International also provides the food services according to the taste and the location. As the business organisation operates a business globally serving the foods according to the taste is an effective market positioning strategy. Another technique of customer segmentation is the demographic segmentation of the customers. In this technique the customers are divided into different groups with respect to the same kind of behaviour. The organisation also designs their tour management according to the lifestyle, economic status and others. This strategy also helps the organisation to gather a significant amount of sales in the market of tourism. Some other methods of effective customer segmentation are psychographic segmentation of the customers and behavioural segmentation. The analysis of the customers behavior helps the organisation to understand the nature of sales and the market trend that helps the organisation to determine the further market strategies (Aithor, 2025). 

Targeting of the customer can be divided into two parts. These two parts are differentiated and undifferentiated. UnDifferentiated targeting mens targeting the whole market. On the other hand, differentiated targeting means target different segments. Customer targeting strategy is different for different segments of the customers so, the customer targeting approach is differentiated in case of the organisation Marrriot international. The organisation targets the customers depending various classifications specially based on the economic sufficiency and the purpose or motive of the customer. Segmented strategies help a hospitality organisation for a better market analysis and better risk management (Linkedin, 2024).

Fig: STP Analysis 

Source: (Vectorstock, 2024)

For the overall performance of the organisation Marriott needs to analyse the market position of the organisation. To build up a strong position in the market, the organisation needs to create an image that helps the organisation to grow, in case of the organisation market position of the organisation marriott and the global market depends on the reputation of the organisation. Prime quality of the service is also an effective one to derive that successful market positioning of the organisation. To analyse the market position of the organisation Marriott it needs to consider the organisation IHG or International Continental Hotels Group. In the segment of hospitality the organisation has the potential to offer a tough competition to Marriott international. Another competitor or alternative of Marriott in the global market is Hyatt Hotels. The organisation operates their hospitality business with a large chain of hotels throughout the world. Another competitor of Marriott international is Hilton Hotels and resorts. Hotel chain Choice Hotels International can also be a tough competitor of the organisation Marriott (Bhasin, 2024). In that situation the organisation needs to be unique with the service and strategies to stay competitive in the market.  

Chapter Four

For the market analysis of an organisation the organisation needs to prioritise the competitors (Kotler and Armstrong, 2023). To analyse the competitor he organisation needs to utilise some effective model. To analyse the market competitor the effective model is the Porter’s 5 forces model. According to the five forces model the five forces that can help to analyse the competitors in the market are replacement or substitutes, new entrants, suppliers power, buyer’s power, competitive level (Maxim, 2021). On all these factors the market competition depends a lot. The existing firm in the tourism industry can provide enough competition to the organisation Marriot. From the previous segment of the study some of the organisations that have derived a tough competition to the Marriott international are Choice Hotels international, Hayatt, IHG and others. These organisations also offer the same service as Marriott international. This existence of the same services in the market of tourism can be a significant factor of the tourism market. These competitiveness also helps the organisation to build up a brand image to enhance the quality of service. To avoid the hard and tough competition the organisation needs to introduce uniqueness in the services of the organisation that still attracts the customers. Though the substitute factor can be threatening for the organisation Marriott, supplier’s power is not such a big factor in the business operation of Marriott international. The suppliers which are required by the organisation Marriot are not such crucial that they can not be replaced. So it is easy to replace the suppliers. Mostly the suppliers of food , maintenance, infrastructure, IT management are required which is enoughly available. So, the performance of the organisation can not be impacted by the power of the suppliers.  

Buyers or the customers are also an important stakeholder of the business, so the audience or the buyers must be prioritised. Threat from the buyer is also low. As a factor, brand image or reputation provides a dividend to the organisation Marriott. The customers may not agree to switch with any other organisation as they prefer to go with the luxury of the services provided by the organisation Marriott. In such cases preferences are built up that helps the organisation to retain the customers in the organisation (Team, 2024).    

The organisation Marriott also needs to consider the other barriers related to the government regulation of any country that can impact the business operation of the organisation. As the organisation Marrriottt deals with the business globally, the organisation needs to consider all these barriers. Hospitality and the tourist industry is such an industry that requires a huge amount of capital that can be a barrier for the start up organisations but it can not be a barrier to the organisation Marriott (Dudovskiy, 2023). However brand loyalty is the key factor of the market position of the organisation.  

 

Fig: Porter’s Five Force Model 

Source: (Dudovskiy, 2023)

Chapter Five

For the success of the organisation, the organisation needs to analyse the market situation and the market factors. The market analysis with the STP analysis helps to understand the market positioning, segmentation of the customers and the targeting of the market. Competitiveness of the market is also important for the business positioning of Marriott international. The issue that can be faced by the organisation during the market positioning is the existence of the same types of organisations. This is the worst barrier to the organisation. It can also cause a threat from buyers to the organisation as the customers will get more options from the organisations. The organisation Marriott International needs to develop some attractive and unique features of their services that will make the organisation different from the others. From the marketing audit of the whole market of the organisation Marriott, it is derived that brand value or the brand ige is a key component of the global business position of the organisation. For an effective marketing plan the new strategy of the organisation - steps towards sustainable tourism will be an effective one.     

References 

Marriott, (2025) About Marriott International: Corporate Information About Marriott International | Corporate Information. Available at: https://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi (Accessed: 12 June 2025).

Kampamba, J., (2015). An analysis of the potential target market through the application of the STP principle/model. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(4), p.324. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johnson-Kampamba/publication/281521878_An_Analysis_of_the_Potential_Target_Market_through_the_Application_of_the_STP_PrincipleModel/links/560e3e8108ae967420111b57/An-Analysis-of-the-Potential-Target-Market-through-the-Application-of-the-STP-Principle-Model.pdf 

Aithor, (2025) Marriott Target Market segmentation | free essay example for students. Available at: https://aithor.com/marriott-target-market-segmentation (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Linkedin, (2024) Market segmentation for the hospitality industry, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/market-segmentation-hospitality-industry-ajbdc/ (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Bhasin, H. (2024) Top 18 Marriott Alternatives & Competitors in 2025, Marketing91. Available at: https://www.marketing91.com/marriott-competitors-analysis/ (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Maxim, L.G., (2021). STRATEGIC ANALYSIS MODEL. PORTER'S 5 FORCES MODEL: CASE STUDY. Turkuaz Uluslararası Sosyo-Ekonomik Stratejik Araştırmalar Dergisi, 3(2), pp.1-7. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2811699 

Team, M.S. (2024) Marriott Porter Five Forces Analysis, MBA Skool. Available at: https://www.mbaskool.com/five-forces-analysis/companies/18276-marriott.html (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Dudovskiy, J. (2023) Marriott Porter’s five forces analysis - research-methodology Research. Available at: https://research-methodology.net/marriott-porters-five-forces-analysis/ (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Staff, D.R. (2024) Marriott International to lay off more than 800 MD employees, Maryland Daily Record. Available at: https://thedailyrecord.com/2024/11/20/marriott-international-to-lay-off-more-than-800-md-employees/ (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Vectorstock, (2024) STP marketing analysis infographics template vector image on VectorStock, VectorStock. Available at: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/stp-marketing-analysis-infographics-template-vector-54329938 (Accessed: 12 June 2025). 

Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2023) Principles of Marketing, Global Edition. 19th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited

Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2023) Principles and Practice of Marketing. 10th Ed. London: McGraw Hill.