How is the Onomo Group and its 21 hotels across Africa coping with the health crisis?
Cédric Guilleminot - While the African leisure and top-of-the-range hotel sectors have suffered as a result of the health restrictions imposed by governments, our mid-range and business positioning is enabling us to get through this period of disruption more easily. And that's even if international travellers, who represent 30 % to 40% of our customer base, are currently missing out for obvious reasons of border restrictions and air links. On the other hand, we are holding up well thanks to inter-regional business tourism and our balanced portfolio of hotels, with a presence in all the major African hubs.
Is the impact of the pandemic the same across the continent?
C. G. - We talk about Africa, but we never talk about Asia, the Americas or Europe in the same general way. And yet the continent has experienced very different health situations. Africa has not experienced the same trajectories at national or even regional level. Take the two antipodes: Morocco - where we have six hotels in Rabat, Casablanca and Tangiers - and South Africa, with five of our establishments in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. These two countries, which are among the economic powerhouses of the continent, have experienced situations quite similar to those in Europe, with drastic border control measures and curfews. As a result of these restrictions, these two areas remained closed to leisure tourism. In East Africa, the measures have also been fairly drastic. As a result, leisure tourism and MICE activity have been restricted in a region that is perhaps even more dependent on these customer segments. West Africa, on the other hand, offers a very different picture.
Is West Africa recovering faster than other regions?
C. G. - The region often focuses attention on the political unrest affecting it. Today, however, on the back of relatively well-developed inter-regional tourism, the area is experiencing a fairly significant upturn in the business market. We are seeing a significant improvement in visitor numbers with decreases limited to 20% to 30 % compared with 2019, compared with reductions in occupancy rates of around 80 % at the height of the crisis. In November and December, some establishments even achieved the budget set for the end of 2019. This is encouraging, but it is still early to say whether the recovery of the West African market is a sign of things to come in other regions. Pending the results of a vaccination programme that will take time, the introduction of tests and protocols for the resumption of travel will be decisive.
Africa has already experienced difficult health situations, such as the Ebola virus.
In addition to the safety/security aspect, which is important for the African hotel industry, there is now a health aspect. What initiatives have you taken in this area?
C. G. - We invested very early on, and significantly, to manage this aspect. Unfortunately, but fortunately, this is not something new for us. Africa has already experienced difficult health situations, such as the Ebola virus. We are well aware of the need to be extremely vigilant on all issues relating to the safety of our employees and our customers. As a result, we immediately sought to guarantee it by putting in place the necessary measures and barriers in all our hotels. And to reassure our customers, we have undertaken to certification of this approach by Bureau Veritas. We are one of two African hotel groups (editor's note: with the Azalai group) to have this label. Our brand offers travellers a real guarantee of quality. Especially as the safety and security protocols will be a lasting feature. The possibility of a similar event occurring is real. So any self-respecting hotel group must have emergency protocols of this type.
Apart from this certification, what are the other strong points of the Onomo hotel offer?
C. G. - By offering hotels that meet the needs of business travellers, Onomo is a kind of safe haven. In addition to affordable rates and adapted to these times of economic uncertainty, we offer a complete service with all the facilities needed by both business and leisure travellers. That means meeting rooms with state-of-the-art technology, but also overdeveloped public areas. We are a pan-African brand. So integrating local culture is a matter of course for us. In particular, we have developed a label, Onomo Visual Art, to make our establishments showcases for contemporary African visual art. We have always chosen to base our hotels on the idea of lifestyle destination. A large proportion of our customers, particularly business travellers, spend most of their time in our hotels. They eat with us, sleep with us and play with us. In this context, it makes sense to offer lively venues with quality catering.
Do you intend to expand your range of lively lifestyle venues?
C. G. - For example, we recently set up a partnership with Universal Music to create events in our hotels, some of which unfortunately had to be postponed. More importantly, we have invested significantly in the catering sector over the last two years, and we are going to continue this effort. For example, we have opened a rooftop restaurant in Durban, a gourmet Italian restaurant in Rabat, terraced restaurants in Kigali - overlooking the thousand hills - and also in Casablanca. In this city where there is no shortage of choice, this restaurant is full every evening, despite the 9pm curfew. The desire to escape the realities of the pandemic for a while is combined with a successful offer.
Is your mid-range positioning an advantage over the competition?
C. G. - When we started out ten years ago, this positioning around hotels that were affordable for most travellers was a priority. innovative in Africa, with a virtual absence of mid-range hotels that meet international standards. What's more, no international chain had succeeded in linking the different regions of the continent. This is one of the major challenges we have taken up. Of course, we don't have a presence in every country, but we have twenty-one hotels in operation, spread evenly between North, West, East, South and Southern Africa, and in April we will open our twenty-second hotel in Kampala.
Could your growth strategy be affected by the crisis?
C. G. - Initially, we expanded mainly by building our own facilities. While continuing in this direction, we also made acquisitions, notably in Morocco and South Africa. We will continue to pursue these lines of development through pure management, management contracts and even acquisitions. However, in the current economic crisis, we need to remain cautious. proceed with caution. Barring an exception or incredible opportunity, 2021 will not be a great year for new projects. But our development is not coming to a halt. We've managed our liquidity well in 2020 and we're lucky to be well capitalised with a round of financing grouped around our original shareholder, the Ruggieri family's Batipart group.
