Cape Verde - top of the charts in recent Hotel report 2017

W Hospitality Group released their latest annual ‘Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa’ report 2017 at the end of last year, reporting on some interesting findings and results.  The annual report on hotel development activity in Africa has become acknowledged as the most authoritative source on the growth of the hotel industry in Africa.

Their survey analysed research from 36 international and regional contributors, reporting pipeline activity of almost 73,000 rooms in 417 hotels, a 13 per cent increase on the 2016 pipeline. Since the annual report was first launched in 2009, the pipeline has grown year on year, more than doubling over the last 8 years.

Cape Verde made a debut in the Top 10 Countries by number of rooms for hotel chain development pipelines in Africa 2017. The island recorded the highest growth in the number of pipeline rooms, which is over 300 per cent on 2016. Meliã have 1,697 pipeline rooms in five hotels in Cape Verde, whilst Hilton, Deutsche Hospitality and Carlson Rezidor also have signed deals on the islands. In terms of average rooms per hotel, Cape Verde has the largest hotels in the top 10, with an average of 316 rooms per property, more than double the average in Angola, Morocco and South Africa.

Cape Verde also featured in the Top 10 Countries by Number of Rooms 2015-2017, with a significant pipeline accounted for 2017, showcasing significant growth for the island.

According to Philippe Baretaud, Senior Vice President Development Africa & India Ocean, Accor Hotels: “2016 was a transitional year for organic growth in the hospitality industry”.

Philippe explained that this was because of a slowdown of development in markets such as Morocco and Nigeria, although there were some positives as Accor Hotels was able to sign 13 new deals, and opened three hotels in Angola in 2016 – the first international brand to operate there for several years.

For Andrew McLachlan Senior Vice President, Carlzon Rezidor Hotel Group, “The highlights in 2016 were the signing of two luxury hotel properties under a new brand, Quorvus Collection, and entering countries new to us such as Cape Verde, Zimbabwe and Uganda) growing our presence in Africa to 16,500 rooms in 29 countries.” Carlson Rezidor opened a new hotel in Africa every 60 days and, according to Andrew, are on track to reach their objective of having more than 23,000 hotel rooms in Africa by the end of 2020.

Deutsche Hospitality (formerly Steigenberger Group) has the largest hotels, with an average size of 390 rooms per hotel. The chain has grown its pipeline 158.6 per cent to 2,340 planned hotel rooms, with the entire pipeline (two hotels in each of Cape Verde, Egypt and Tunisia) signed in 2016/17.

For Meliã, the focus is mainly on Cape Verde. Benjamin Oppl, Development Director, Middle East and North Africa shared that: “Most of our current and short-term hotel room supply in Africa will be in the Cape Verde islands, where we have four hotels in operation and another five in the pipeline (to open by 2020). Spain is a strong market for Cape Verde, a market in which we have unrivalled sales and marketing strength. In addition to our Meliã resort in Zanzibar, we are currently developing a Meliã safari lodge with the same owner in the Serengeti.” Benjamin also shared that other markets of interest to the chain are Mauritius, Seychelles and Algeria.

In summary, the analysis showcases a snapshot of the international and regional hotel chains’ pipelines in Africa, along with expectations and growth opportunities.  More hotel chains are beginning to establish development offices in Africa, in particular Cape Verde, which featured for the first time in many of the findings. It is expected that Africa’s hotel industry will be in need of much expansion if the pipeline and proposed deals come to fruition.