Ethiopia among Top Four in Hotel Dev’t in Africa (May 10, 2019)

According to a survey by the Lagos-based W Hospitality Group, Ethiopia is ranked fourth in hotel development in Africa.

Egypt is ranked first, followed by Nigeria and Morocco, according to the Africa Business Communities.

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 of almost 11,000 rooms in the pipeline, 17% up on 2018.

W Hospitality Group’s 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% on 2018, and down 3.8% in sub-Saharan Africa – largely due to several of the chains “cleaning” their pipelines, deleting deals that they believe are not going to happen.

Ethiopia, has seen another increase in pipeline deals, up from 31 hotels in 2018, signed by international chains such as Accor and Hilton, as well as by regional chains such as aha and Latitude. Best Western and IHG each signed two hotels in 2018.

The majority of these deals, 27 hotels with 84 per cent of total rooms, are in Addis Ababa.

This year, the top ten countries account for 69% of the total hotels in the survey, and 74% of the rooms.

According to the Group, full details will be revealed and discussed at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) in Addis Ababa, September 23 – 25 2019, organized 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.