After establishing a strong presence in Africa in the past two years, Radisson Hotel Group has announced plans to further strengthen its footprint in the market this year. The group already has eight new openings confirmed to date.
The Minnetonka, Minn.-based hotel group plans to achieve 150 hotels in five years in the continent, establishing Africa as a key growth market.
The company has 100 hotels totaling 16,000 rooms currently in operation and under development in the continent. Radisson has opened 14 hotels and signed more than 25 new hotels, adding over 4,800 more rooms to its portfolio over the past two years. This constitutes 90% of its pipeline in the region, indicating a 15% growth in its African operating portfolio YOY.
“Over the last two years, we have accelerated our growth timeline locally and reached new record milestones across Africa, thanks to our balanced development strategy, our tailored approach, and our swift response to changing market conditions. As a group, we have prioritized consolidating our market share in key focus markets and expanding our presence in new territories to cement our leading position as the most geographically diverse hotel company across Africa,” said Ramsay Rankoussi, vice president, Development, Africa & Turkey, Radisson Hotel Group.
Key markets for the company’s expansion in the region include Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt, along with new markets like Gambia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Ghana and Seychelles.
The topmost priority for the group’s development strategy in these markets is quick conversion. Radisson said it reduced the period between its hotel signings and openings from five to seven years to two to three years. For instance, the recently-opened Radisson Blu Livingstone Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort in Zambia opened in less than 24 months while Radisson Blu Hotel & Conference Center Niamey in Niger opened in 12 months.
Upcoming openings anticipated this year include Radisson’s first property in Reunion Island and Ghana and new hotels in Casablanca, Taghazout and Saidia in Morocco and Hoedspruit in South Africa, Lusaka in Zambia and Tunis in Tunisia.
“Our rate of materialization and openings are a testament to the quality of our pipeline and our conversion strategy to reposition existing hotels under one of our Radisson Hotel Group brands. What sets us apart, is our owner-centric approach with dedicated teams and relevant brands that balance the lowest development cost with access to development solutions. Our adaptive solutions are created to meet local needs, resulting in compact, midscale, and luxury hotel offerings as well as serviced apartments with a lean operational model and efficiencies as a result of hotel clusters,” Rankoussi said.
SUCCESS IN 2022
The company saw a successful 2022 entering new key markets, including adding three new properties in Madagascar. The first Radisson-branded hotel was signed in East Africa, Radisson Hotel Addis Ababa Bole Airport and the Radisson Individuals brand was launched in the continent with the opening of Marina Resort Port Ghalib, a member of Radisson Individuals in Egypt’s Marsa Allam.
While the opening of Radisson Blu Hotel, Juba in South Sudan saw the country get its first internationally branded luxury property: the signing of Radisson Resort Dakar Saly in Senegal marked the brand’s growth locally.
Radisson grew its portfolio in South Africa to over 14 properties, with the opening of Radisson Blu Hotel Durban Umhlanga and will open its first safari resort in the country later this year with Radisson Safari Hotel, Hoedspruit.
In Tunisia, the group opened Radisson Hotel Radisson Hotel Sfax and rebranded La Maison Blanche Tunis as a Radisson Individuals property. The company also signed the 294-room Radisson Collection Marsa Allam, Egypt and the 220-room Radisson Hotel Yaounde, Cameroon, both of which will open in 2024.
Globally, Radisson has over 1,600 hotels in operation and under development under nine brands across 120 countries.
According to a 2022 study by W Hospitality, Hilton, Marriott and Radisson Blu emerged as the leading hotel brands with on-site construction activity across Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa trailed North Africa, with a 6% dip in development. Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa posted a 29% decline, with Nigeria recording a higher decline of 41%.
Meanwhile, North Africa was the hotspot of development and witnessed most of the growth in the continent, with Egypt leading as the country with the greatest number of rooms and hotels in the continent. Egypt had three times the number of Morocco and roughly four times the number of Nigeria, partly driven by the government’s initiatives toward tourism.
The midscale and economy segments in the continent mostly remained underdeveloped, the report said. The focus, however, continues to be on branded properties with the majority of the pipeline in the upscale and upper upscale chain scales, with luxury in the third spot.