Starwood Hotels And Resorts Relocates Global Headquarters To Dubai For Month-Long Immersion

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) today announced the beginning of a month-long relocation of its global headquarters from Stamford, CT to Dubai. From now until April 5 ^th, Starwood President & CEO Frits van Paasschen and the company’s top executives will conduct day-to-day business from Dubai, an increasingly important global destination and travel hub. Following the company’s successful relocation to China in June 2011, this second leadership move reflects Starwood’s innovative management approach to cultivating a more global culture by understanding, appreciating and leveraging different societal perspectives and approaches to business and hospitality.

“With 80 percent of Starwood’s pipeline coming from rapidly growing markets, it is simply not possible to lead a truly global business from a boardroom in Connecticut,” said van Paasschen. “Rising wealth and ever greater global connectivity are creating a once-in-a-lifetime growth opportunity for our business – by fueling new demand, changing travel patterns, and entirely new travel markets. Dubai epitomizes this changing face of travel, and we expect this relocation will deepen our relationships with partners, associates and customers. Just as with our one-month relocation to China in 2011, our time in-market will spark new ideas that will fortify our position as the most global high-end hotel company.”

During the course of the relocation, more than 200 Starwood executives and GMs from the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America will travel to Dubai as the company runs day-to-day operations almost 7,000 miles and a nine-hour time zone away from its usual HQ outside New York City. The team will meet with associates, customers, owners and prospective developers in the UAE and also take advantage of Dubai’s location for business travel to destinations including Mumbai, Addis Ababa, Jeddah, Dushanbe and Kuwait.

To visually narrate the month’s journey, Starwood today debuted Tumblr and Instagram accounts. Please follow the relocation at http://starwoodhotels.tumblr.com/ and http://instagram.com/starwoodbuzz

Dubai Illustrative of “New Golden Age of Travel”

Dubai is a natural choice for Starwood’s second month-long senior leadership relocation as the city is situated eight hours from two-thirds of the world’s population and is a global gateway at the crossroads of East and West and the developed and rapidly growing economies. The Middle East continues to evolve as an international business and leisure travel hub with Dubai now home to many multinational corporations, consultants, banks and university campuses. In 2012, Dubai International Airport counted approximately 58 million visitors, a number which is expected to grow at annual rates above ten percent, and the airport is expected to be the world’s largest in terms of international passenger traffic by 2015.

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