[ad_1]
Africa’s tourism sector is experiencing exciting growth and has the potential to take off if driven by visionary strategies and strong investment to fully capitalise on the continent’s unrivalled tourism appeal.
Africa has undergone an unprecedented transformation in recent years and its tourism appeal is greater than ever. With the right steps, Africa can offer even more top destinations to today’s travelers. The API Hotels & Residences Forum is a key platform for the African hospitality industry, renowned for its deals, networking and unique insights. The forum will be held at the Westin Cape Town on September 19, 2024, marking the first day of the much-anticipated two-day API Summit.
The theme of this year’s API Summit is “Impact,” and industry leaders speaking at the API Hospitality and Residential Forum stressed that targeted investments, strategic partnerships, and strong public sector engagement are key to unlocking the full potential of Africa’s tourism industry to drive sustainable growth and enhance the continent’s attractiveness to tourists and investors. The API Hospitality and Residential Forum lays the foundation to catalyze and foster these outcomes.
Bani Haddad, founder and managing director of Aleph Hospitality, the largest independent hotel management company in the Middle East and Africa, will be one of the distinguished speakers. Haddad said: “The pandemic has had multiple and profound impacts on the travel industry. One of the most obvious is the increased demand for domestic or regional travel and for destinations that feature nature or are less crowded. Africa is uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends.”
Citing W Hospitality’s latest hotel chain pipeline report, Haddad noted that the number of hotel rooms in Africa has grown 20% to 92,134 since 2020. “This growth shows that supply is expanding across the continent to meet growing demand. We are also seeing an increase in premium and branded hotel supply in resort destinations such as Zanzibar and national parks such as the Serengeti and Mara. The global demand for nature-based and experiential experiences presents a major opportunity for Africa, which has a lot to offer in this regard.”
Haddad continued: “Investing in tourism and building partnerships is not only beneficial, but essential to unlocking Africa’s full potential.”
These efforts can promote overall economic development, job creation and foster sustainable and inclusive growth. He stressed that governments, private sector players and international organizations all play a vital role in promoting these investments and partnerships to ensure that the tourism industry thrives and makes a significant contribution to the development of the African continent.
This sentiment was echoed by Daniel Trappler (photo), Senior Director of Development for Sub-Saharan Africa at Radisson Hotel Group (RHG), who will also be speaking at the event, outlining RHG’s strategic plans for the post-pandemic era. “RHG plans to capitalise on growth opportunities in key value nodes such as Cape Town, Victoria Falls, Zanzibar, and leisure offerings in coastal and safari areas of Southern and Eastern Africa. In these nodes, there are opportunities to increase RHG brand offerings to meet the clearly growing demand.”
The global demand for nature and experiences presents a major opportunity for Africa, which has a lot to offer.
Trappler stressed that RHG is keen to expand its presence in the five-star and luxury hotel segments in Cape Town, which have consistently performed above the market average despite higher price points. In Victoria Falls, RHG aims to replicate its success on the banks of the Zambezi River in Zambia with plans to introduce the upscale Radisson Blu brand to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Trappler added: “Given RHG’s strong presence in Eastern Europe, Zanzibar’s largest source market, we are actively seeking partners to bring our Radisson, Radisson Blu or Radisson Collection brands to Zanzibar.”
Since opening the new Radisson Safari Hotel Hoedspruit, RHG has set its sights on replicating the same model in southern and eastern Africa to capture foreign markets and regional markets that favour shorter-distance travel demand.
“The group is developing resorts in a number of safari and coastal locations, including the Masai Mara, Serengeti, the Kenya coast, Seychelles, Mauritius and game reserves in Namibia and Botswana.”
Trappler stressed the key role of investment and public sector involvement. “The contribution of tourism to GDP is evident across the region. National and local governments need to raise awareness of the sector’s potential contribution to GDP. In South Africa, where RHG aims to double its portfolio, we need to see more active public sector interest and contribution in developing hotels and hospitality infrastructure.”
He stressed that public sector initiatives were needed to drive growth in the sector, particularly in South Africa, as the sector was strong but could contribute more to GDP and job creation.
The API Hotels & Residential Forum is a unique pan-African event that brings together hospitality-focused leaders and investors with Africa’s leading real estate community. Sponsored by industry heavyweights such as Radisson Hotel Group, Marriott, HTI Consulting, JLL and Tui Blu, the Forum provides an unrivalled platform for doing business in the African hospitality industry.
With over 500 leaders expected to attend the summit, including more than 250 hospitality industry representatives, over 75 hotel brands, operators and owners and 35 guest speakers, API Hospitality and Residential Forum is the premier gathering of Africa’s leading hospitality professionals and consultants.
Source: API Activity.
[ad_2]
Source link
