International hotel operator Marriott said its April purchase of South African hotel chain, Protea, helped increase revenue and occupancy rates in its Africa and Middle East lodgings during the second quarter, GulfBusiness reports.

The company saw revenue increase by 3.9 percent and occupancy rate rise by 4.4 percent during the second quarter compared to the previous year.

Strong demand in the region drove the growth, it said in a statement.

Marriott International, Middle East and Africa, bought Protea April 1, leap-frogging its competition — said Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director — “to become the No. 1 hospitality company in Africa and second-largest operator across the Middle East and Africa. The positive results reaffirm the growing popularity of our brands across the region and the successful integration of Protea into the Marriott family.”

Two new Protea Hotels opened during the second quarter including Protea Hotel Select in Lagos, Nigeria, and Protea Hotel Lusaka Tower in Lusaka, Zambia.

Earlier this year, Marriott president and CEO Arne Sorenson discussed the company’s focus in Africa saying he planned to add 10,000 more employees in 13 countries including Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

Overall, African economies are forecast to grow 4.8 percent in 2014 and 5-6 percent in 2015, according to African Development Bank.

But tourism in Africa is threatened by Ebola, GulfBusiness reports. Though the outbreak is in West Africa, it’s causing serious concern among businessmen and tourists planning to travel to the continent.

Globally, Marriott added 162 new properties (18,729 rooms) to its worldwide lodging portfolio in the second quarter, including 113 properties (10,016 rooms) related to the Protea transaction.

At the end of the second quarter, it had 4,087 properties and timeshare resorts accounting for nearly 697,000 rooms.

The company has 213 properties with more than 30,000 rooms approved for development, without signed contracts, GulfBusiness reports.