Lagos, Kigali, Accra, Cotonou, Addis Ababa, Freetown: until now, African destinations have been relatively neglected, but now they are high on the list of priorities for the big names in the international hotel industry. Attracted by prospects for economic growth of 5 to 6% until 2015, as well as the emergence of a burgeoning middle class - the African Development Bank predicts that it will reach one billion people in 2050, compared with 300 million today - and the influx of business travellers and foreign capital, hotel groups are strengthening their presence in sub-Saharan Africa at an unprecedented rate. Their credo: to complement an offer that is often limited to large, top-of-the-range establishments, whose rates were also boosted by quasi-monopoly situations. According to data from the W Hospitality Group, 208 new hotels are planned for 2012, compared with 159 in 2011, a trend that is set to accelerate over the coming years.
Radisson and Park Inn, the spearheads of Rezidor
Carlson Rezidor took its first steps in Africa in 1999 and now has 49 hotels and 11,000 rooms available or under development. The hotel group is now one of the leading international players on the continent, after Accor, but ahead of Starwood with its 38 hotels in fifteen countries. While Hilton has already established itself in several markets - Lagos, Yaoundé and Nairobi among them - Marriott is a young convert: the Kigali Marriott, due to open in mid-2013, will be the group's first representative in this market. Ten other hotels are already planned between now and 2015, in Addis Ababa, Libreville and Cotonou in particular.
Accor: several Ibis and Novotel hotels on hold
Accor has 54 hotels in sub-Saharan Africa, spread across 14 countries. The group plans to open 5,000 new rooms by 2016, including 35 new hotels for the sub-Saharan market. This growth is symbolised by the integration of the famous Hôtel Ivoire in Abidjan into the Sofitel network on 1 January.er last January.
Marriott and Africa: a story in progress
While Hilton has already established itself in several markets - Lagos, Yaoundé and Nairobi among others - Marriott is a young convert: the Kigali Marriott, due to open in mid-2013, will be the group's first representative in this market. Ten other hotels are already planned between now and 2015, in Addis Ababa, Libreville and Cotonou in particular.
The African hotel industry on the rise
Foreign groups are not the only ones interested in the continent, as demonstrated by the launch of Onomo in 2008 by two former Accor employees. The brand has three hotels, in Dakar, Abidjan and Libreville, and aims to have 25 establishments by 2015, in a three-star market that is still very open. Azalaï is also exploiting this positioning. This Malian brand, which has three hotels in its domestic market, has expanded into Benin, Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau. These local alternatives complement the already extensive portfolio of two African heavyweights: the Tunisian-Libyan group Laico, with 14 establishments, and above all the South African Protea, with 117 hotels.
