Hilton leads hotel development boom in Africa

03 Jul 2015
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Leading with 7,250 rooms in its pipeline, spread over 29 new properties, Hilton is followed by Carlson Rezidor and Marriott comes third.

Transcorp Hilton Abuja

Lagos-based consultancy, W Hospitality Group, recently released its 2015 Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey, which shows that Hilton Hotels and Resorts is ahead of other global hotel chains in the development of new hotels in Africa. Leading with 7,250 rooms in its pipeline, spread over 29 new properties, Hilton is followed by Carlson Rezidor, with 6,953 new rooms in development across 32 hotels. Marriott comes third with 6,412 rooms in its development pipeline, spread over 36 new properties.
    
Best Western has 12 new hotels in its pipeline. But the average size of its hotels, put at 93 rooms, is smaller. Both Kempinski and Fairmont focus on large, luxury hotels and they have the largest average number of rooms in the survey. Mangalis, a new chain, launched in 2013, is achieving rapid growth by adopting an “asset-heavy” strategy, and funding the development of nearly all of its hotels. This is in contrast with other chains in the survey, who are “asset-light”, seeking management agreements, or franchises and leases.

Trevor Ward, Managing Director, W Hospitality Group, said: “These figures highlight two trends in African hotel development. First is that the main opportunities lie in the midscale segment, and second is that such hotels are “easier” to develop.”


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