Marriott on the Move

A group of Wall Street investors came to visit us and their first question to me was, "What is your vision for the future of this company for the next five years?"

There were a lot of ways I could've answered this question. I thought about it for awhile and I said, "I think the future and the vision for this company is to continue to foster, maintain and improve our company culture."

But what does that really mean? Well, our company culture has been stated many ways. Basically, we believe in taking good care of our people and believe that if we do, they'll take good care of the guests and the customers and they'll return.

This has been embedded in the philosophy of our company for over 81 years. It was started by . . .

I recently visited our 22 year old Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Florida. We just opened the world's largest pillar-less ballroom and we have several new restaurants where I met Pastry Chef Lucy Martin. Lucy cooked some really great desserts for me.

She's been with our company since 1991. She didn't begin her career in pastries, but started out as a cocktail waitress in our Broadway Lounge at the New York Marriott Marquis. She was in New York with the hopes . . .

I received two interesting comments from a reader named Brian. He asked me why Marriott doesn't sponsor people from other countries to train in our hotels in the United States.

Actually, we do sponsor international associates to train in our country. Currently, we have 590 people from different countries training at our hotels in the U.S. on what's called a J-1 visa.

These associates train for a year in our domestic hotels and they are a great asset to our company. They possess great skills and bring . . .

There's a saying in the United States, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Well, our U.S. immigration policy is broken, and I want Congress to fix it and get it done now.

If you've been reading my blog, you know I have pretty strong opinions about immigration policy and they're not always the most popular. I expressed my opinion recently . . .

Lately, it seems like you hear only about bad news coming out of New Orleans. Let me give you some good news. I was just down there a couple of days ago and was really impressed - I was caught in a traffic jam. Imagine: the streets that were deserted just a few years ago are now being filled up with traffic. A lot of the old houses that were wrecked by Katrina are now torn down and the city is clean and pristine. I'm anxious to see people come back to work and enjoy the wonderful culture of New Orleans.

One thing that impressed me while . . .

When I was 16 years old, in 1948, my parents took me on my first trip outside the United States. I remember we flew to Mexico City on Eastern Airlines on a DC-3 out of National Airport. I was fascinated by the size of the city and the colorful robes and garb and uniforms that the people were wearing. We went to Xochimilco, which is the floating garden, and we saw a bullfight. For a 16 year old boy, that was a spectacular remembrance.

Well, I'm going to be back in Mexico City speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce. I'm going to . . .