(Reuters) -Marriott International Inc said on Wednesday it expects a key revenue metric for its United States and Canada markets to hit pre-pandemic levels for the rest of the year as leisure travel picks up pace.
The Ritz-Carlton owner expects April RevPAR, or revenue per available room, “fully recovered” to 2019 levels in the U.S. and Canada.
Marriott’s shares rose 2.1% to $176.63 before the bell.
“Going forward we expect leisure travel to remain strong, business travel to accelerate and cross border travel to gain momentum,” Chief Executive Anthony Capuano said.
Hotel operators have benefited from higher demand during the first quarter as people spent more on travel, dining out at restaurants as well as hotel stays despite rising inflation.
Marriott also reinstated its dividend at 30 cents per share and set a target of resuming share buybacks this year.
The company’s comparable RevPAR rose 96.5% for the first quarter.
Net income rose to $377 million, or $1.14 per share, for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $11 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 80% to $4.19 billion.
(Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Sriraj Kalluvila and Shounak Dasgupta)
