Nigeria, Senegal, Cape Verde dominate West African hotel pipeline with 77% of total planned rooms

A W Hospitality Group’s 2017 Hotel Chains Pipeline report has indicated that Nigeria, Senegal and Cape Verde dominate the West African market in total planned rooms.

It said of the hotel pipeline for West Africa, Nigeria contributes 49.6 percent or more than 10,000 hotel rooms (in 61 hotels) and that Nigeria is the top market in Africa for planned rooms.

The other substantial markets in West Africa, according to the report, include Cape Verde with 11 hotels and 3,478 rooms, and Senegal with 14 hotels and 2,164 rooms. These three markets contribute a total of 15,955 hotel rooms, or 77 percent of the West African hotel pipeline,” the report indicated.

“Approximately 57 percent of the pipeline in these countries have moved to site, however some of these projects have been stalled for some time.

“In a country, like Nigeria, this can be significant. For instance, 40 percent of Nigeria’s pipeline was signed between 2009 and 2014,” it said, adding that a large portion of these projects is still in the “planning” phase.

“In Senegal only approximately 44% of the deals signed have moved to site.”

The report specifically warned hotel groups need to tackle lengthy development periods in West Africa

“Although the pipeline of hotels to the sub-region is encouraging and indicative of strong investor interest, the low completion rate of projects could be troubling for the development of the hotel sector.

“It is also difficult for the hotel chains whose expansion plans in these markets rely on partnerships with local and foreign investors to develop these hotels. All the major global hotel chains have strong expansion plans to increase their operating presence on the continent, and in West Africa.”

The report noted that West Africa has been at the heart of the continent’s growth and economic transformation in recent years. Notwithstanding the sharp slowdown experienced in 2016 and 2017, the region’s economy is expected to rebound in 2017 onwards.

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“Commodity-based economies, like Nigeria, are slowly recovering from the fall in oil prices and oil production, while countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Senegal have shown economic resilience and sustained growth.

“As many of the countries continue to stabilize – politically and economically – the region will be better integrated from a local and international context. This increased integration raises the need for quality travel and accommodation infrastructure,” it highlighted.

According to W Hospitality Group’s 2017 Hotel Chains Pipeline report, West Africa has a pipeline of 114 hotels and 20,790 rooms, accounting for 42 percent of the Sub-Saharan African hotel pipeline.