The stars of hotel development in Africa are Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Ethiopia, according to the eleventh annual survey by W Hospitality Group.
The four countries head the top ten by numbers of rooms in the internationally branded hotel development pipeline, with Egypt showing 15,158 rooms in 51 new hotels.
A total of 75,155 branded rooms in 401 hotels are in development across the whole of Africa – a net increase (ignoring recent openings and taking into account deals that have not come to fruition) of almost 11,000 rooms in the pipeline, 17 per cent up on 2018.
W Hospitality Group’s Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa survey had a record 43 international and regional hotel contributors this year, covering 54 countries in north and sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian Ocean islands.
The top-line figures show that in North Africa the rooms pipeline is up 2.3 per cent on 2018, and down 3.8 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa – largely due to several of the chains “cleaning” their pipelines, deleting deals that they believe are not going to happen.
These cleaning adjustments amount to more than 12,000 rooms in 74 hotels.
Nevertheless, despite this significant adjustment, there has been growth of 51 per cent in the total pipeline rooms since 2015 – North Africa up by 58 per cent, and sub-Saharan Africa up by 47 per cent.
This year, the top ten countries account for 69 per cent of the total hotels in the survey, and 74 per cent of the rooms.
Trevor Ward, managing director, W Hospitality Group, said: “Egypt has by far the largest number of rooms in the pipeline this year, almost double the number in Nigeria, which is in second place.
“There has been huge activity by the chains in Egypt, with over 2,000 new rooms signed there in 2017, and a further 4,500 in 2018, of which 1,850 were signed by Radisson.
“Accor has no fewer than 16 deals with 6,363 hotels in Egypt, boosted by new brands from its acquisitions, including Mövenpick and Fairmont.”
Full details will be revealed and discussed at the Africa Hotel Investment Forumin Addis Ababa, September 23rd-25th, organised by Bench Events.
It is the leading conference of its kind in Africa, connecting business leaders and fuelling investment in tourism projects, infrastructure and hotel development across the continent.
Source: breakingtravelnews