Kenya has been ranked fifth best destination for hotel development in Africa. An annual survey conducted by W Hospitality Group, ranked Egypt first, followed by Nigeria, Morocco, and Ethiopia.
The survey, on its 11th year, had a record 43 international and regional hotel contributors this year, covering 54 countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian Ocean islands.
This year, the top 10 countries accounted for 69 per cent of the total hotels surveyed, and 74 per cent of the rooms.
Kenya scored 67 per cent with 27 hotels and 2,849 rooms in terms of onsite construction, while Morocco and Algeria had 74 per cent and 75 per cent, respectively, a greater progress than in Nigeria and South Africa, both of which are under 50 per cent.
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Nairobi was ranked fourth in terms of rooms with 3,167 after Cairo, with over 8,000 rooms in development and Addis Ababa ( 5,196) followed by Lagos, the leader for several previous years at (3,757) and then Algiers (3,107), Abuja (2,743), Dakar (2,208), Abijan (2,102), Lusaka (1,872) and Marrakech (1,868), the last two in the top 10 for the first time.
The countries, which rank next in terms of branded hotel rooms already operating are South Africa with 24,048, Morocco with 12,498 and then Tunisia, Nigeria and Algeria, all with just over 5,000.
Kenya has over 4,232 branded rooms in the pipeline followed by Ghana, Tanzania and Cape Verde, each with just over 2,000.
The African Insights Hotel Outlook 2017-2021 report released in October last year by audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said in the next five years, Kenya was expected to open 13 new hotels, which will add 2,400 guestrooms, increasing the country’s hotel capacity by 13 per cent.
The report projects that by 2022, growth in occupancy rate would be 58.1 per cent, up from 47.3 per cent in 2017.
By the end of 2017, the country had an estimated 19,100 rooms with occupancy of 47.3 per cent.
Hotel growth in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, according to the survey, continues to be driven by international and domestic tourism.
Trevor Ward, managing director, W Hospitality Group said: “Egypt has by far the largest number of rooms in the pipeline this year, almost double the number in Nigeria....”
