Leeny Oberg
Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President at Marriott International
Thank you, Tony. I'll walk you through our strong 2023 financial results. In the fourth quarter, US and Canada RevPAR increased over 3% year-over-year, primarily due to higher ADR. International RevPAR rose 17%, driven by an 8 percentage point gain in occupancy and a 4% rise in ADR. Asia-Pacific again experienced the largest year-over-year RevPAR increase. RevPAR rose 81% in Greater China, helped by the last quarter of easy comparisons to COVID lockdowns in the year ago quarter and grew 13% in Asia-Pacific, excluding China.
Fourth quarter total gross fee revenues grew 10% to $1.24 billion, reflecting higher RevPAR, room additions and strong growth in our cobrand credit card fees. Incentive management fees or IMFs rose 17%, reaching $218 million, driven by another quarter of significant increases in Asia Pacific. For the full year, gross fees rose 18% with record IMFs that were nearly 20% higher than our prior peak in 2019. Owned, lease and other revenue net of direct expenses reached $151 million in the quarter and included substantially higher termination fees, primarily due to $63 million associated with the termination of a development project.
G&A of $330 million was impacted by a $27 million litigation reserve for an international hotel, as well as timing of performance related compensation, an increase in bad debt expense and higher professional fees, which included costs associated with our intellectual property restructuring transactions.
Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA grew 10% to nearly $1.2 billion. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was 21% higher than in 2022. Thanks to our team's excellent tax planning efforts that reflect evolving global tax laws, we had a tax benefit of $267 million in the quarter. This was due to over $400 million of favorable discrete items related to international IP restructuring strategies and the release of a tax valuation allowance. The fourth quarter effective tax rate was slightly higher than last year's and above our previous expectations due to jurisdictional mix shift.
At the hotel level, despite meaningful wage and benefit inflation, we maintained profit margins in our US managed hotels in the quarter and for the year compared to both 2022 and 2019, a strong performance. Importantly, our guest surveys indicate that customer satisfaction continues to rise. In December, our intent to recommend score achieved its highest monthly score in over five years. Our asset light business model once again generated significant cash with almost $3.2 billion of cash provided by operating activities in 2023, up 34% year-over-year. Our loyalty program was a source of cash even after factoring in the final year of reduced payments from the credit card companies resulting from the amendments we entered into in 2020.
In 2024, we expect loyalty cash flow to be roughly neutral. Now let's talk more about 2024. Our full year outlook assumes a steady, albeit slower growing global economy. It also reflects normalized lodging demand in most regions around the world, with Asia Pacific expected to see higher growth than other regions, as it continues to have some benefit from COVID recovery, as well as additional international airlift.
In 2024, RevPAR growth is expected to be driven by another meaningful increase in group revenue, continued improvement in business transient demand, which will be helped by mid single digit special corporate rate increases and slower, but still growing leisure revenues. We're off to a strong start with January RevPAR up 7% globally, reflecting continued strong demand around the world, particularly in international markets.
International RevPAR rose 14% and US and Canada RevPAR increased 4% in the month, with year-over-year comparisons easiest in January and Easter shifting from April to March this year, global RevPAR for the first quarter could increase 4% to 5%. For the full year, we anticipate a 3% to 5% rise in global RevPAR. Growth is expected to remain higher in international markets than in the US and Canada, with particular strength in Asia Pacific. The sensitivity of a 1% change in full year 2024 RevPAR versus 2023 could be around $50 million to $60 million of RevPAR related fees.
For the full year, gross fees could rise 6% to 8% to $5.1 billion to $5.2 billion, with non-RevPAR related fees rising 9% to 10%, driven by strong credit card and residential branding fee growth. Owned, lease and other revenues net of expenses are expected to total $320 million to $330 million, 17% to 20% lower than 2023 due to meaningfully lower termination fees, given the large termination fee in the fourth quarter of 2023, a property we sold last summer in CALA flipping from owned to managed and renovations at several owned hotels. We expect 2024 G&A expense could be flat to up 2% year-over-year. There are a few discrete one-time items from 2023 that are expected to offset wage and benefit increases.
Full-year adjusted EBITDA could increase between 5% and 8% to roughly $4.9 billion to $5 billion. Note that our 2024 effective tax rate is expected to be around 25%, while we expect our underlying core cash tax rate to remain in the low 20s percent range. Guidance details for the full year and first quarter are in the press release.
Please note that first quarter results are expected to be impacted by a few items. First, the timing of residential branding fees is expected to result in these non-RevPAR related fees being meaningfully lower in the first quarter, but up nicely for the full year. Second, owned, leased and other revenue net of expenses will be lower due to the renovations on several owned properties, as well as the CALA property that flipped from owned to managed. And finally, G&A in the year ago quarter benefited from several one-time items, while this year's first quarter includes MTM integration cost.
Our capital allocation philosophy remains the same. We're committed to our investment grade rating, investing in growth that is accretive to shareholder value and then returning excess capital to shareholders through a combination of a modest cash dividend and share repurchases. We're pleased with a significant value we return to shareholders in 2023 and expect strong capital returns again in 2024.
For 2024, factoring in the $500 million of required cash in the fourth quarter for the purchase of the Sheraton Grand Chicago, capital returns to shareholders could be between $4.1 billion and $4.3 billion. Full year investment spending could total $1 billion to $1.2 billion. This includes another year of higher than historical investment in technology, the vast majority of which is expected to be reimbursed over time. The $500 million for the Sheraton Grand Chicago consist of $200 million of capex and $300 million elimination of a previously recorded guarantee liability. Investment spending is also expected to incorporate roughly $200 million for our owned, leased portfolio and include spending for the renovation in the Elegant portfolios in Barbados and the completion of the W - Union square renovations. We'll look to recycle these assets and sign long term management contracts after renovations are complete.
As Tony mentioned, we're also thrilled about our development growth prospects both inside and outside the US. We continue to gain market share with 7% of open rooms and 18% of rooms under construction globally at the end of last year. Tony and I are now happy to take your questions. Operator?
