The Marriott man

Marriott president Ed Fuller runs the world's biggest hotel group, and it's about to get bigger.

Ed Fuller, the president of the Marriott International hotel group, eases into a plush armchair in a lounge in the JW Marriott in the heart of old Dubai and explains why the world's largest lodging chain has its sights set on expansion in the Gulf.

"Right now, Dubai is the world cup of hotels; we're all here and we're all building something new," says Fuller with a characteristic California drawl.

After more than 35 years with Marriott Hotel Group, he is no stranger to Dubai and opened the group's first JW Marriott back in 1991, the venue of our interview.

Marriott operates more than 3000 lodging properties across 67 countries and aims to double its Middle East portfolio to 65 properties by 2011 - led by Saudi Arabia where it plans to develop nine new hotels.

Fuller believes the time is now right for the group to ramp up its portfolio in the kingdom.

"All of a sudden, Saudi Arabia is opening its doors and taking a whole new approach that it hasn't over the years," says Fuller of the company's growth strategy for the kingdom. "So we see more and more opportunity in Saudi Arabia itself."

The Marriott group has had a long-standing presence in the kingdom, having operated a Marriott hotel in Dhahran since 1975.

Marriott International has now signed on to five new properties in Saudi Arabia, also planned to open in three years time.

These hotels include a 250-room Marriott hotel and a 50-unit Marriott Executive Apartments in Dammam, a 250-room Ritz-Carlton Residence in Riyadh and a 220-room Marriott Courtyard in Jubail.