NEW research from Lagos-based consultancy W Hospitality Group on Tuesday showed that for the first time since the survey began in 2009, international and regional hotel chains are signing more deals in sub-Saharan Africa than in North Africa.
"The big story this year is a dramatic surge in interest from the hotel chains in sub-Saharan Africa, W Hospitality MD Trevor Ward said. "The continent generally has never been an easy place to do business and is likely to remain more challenging than Europe or even China.
"However, the lack of quality hotel rooms, not just in the capitals but also in the secondary cities, is so marked that the major international chains now cannot ignore the opportunity."
The 49 countries of sub-Saharan Africa now have a development pipeline that is more than 40% greater than the five countries in North Africa, in double the number of hotels. By contrast, North Africa, which experienced negative growth last year, continues to be hurt by the unrest in many markets in the region, particularly Egypt, where projects have either been suspended or cancelled.
The number of branded hotel rooms planned for sub-Saharan Africa has risen consistently since 2011 (from 13,700 in 2011 to 23,283 rooms this year) and the number of hotel deals signed has also risen sharply, from 77 hotels in 2010 to 142 hotels this year. This represents growth of 84% over the five-year period and a compound annual growth rate of 13%.
Out of the 38 countries surveyed, Nigeria ranks highest both in terms of the number of hotels and the number of rooms in the pipeline, which is about 40% more than the second-ranked country, Morocco.
Of the five North African countries, Libya is the top performer in terms of growth, adding three hotels to its 2014 pipeline, an addition of 869 rooms, up 62% on last year. But a few large developments skew the picture as Libya and Egypt have some much larger properties planned, close to double the size of those in Nigeria and Morocco.
The flip-side of sub-Saharan Africa growth is that less than 60% of the rooms in the pipeline are under construction, compared with 75% in North Africa.
