KENYA: More Hotel Rooms Expected In Kenya

Kenya is set to get an additional 4,000 hotel beds in the next five years as per an estimate of international and upcoming brands that have announced plans of setting up in the country.

Ms Keziah Odemba,Director of Tourism said the coming of the international brands portends good tidings for the industry and for the country’s economy as the established brands will directly source for tourists from their niche markets thereby adding to the total visitor numbers.

Speaking during the World Tourism Day fete in Nairobi, Ms Odemba said the expected multi-billion shilling investments among them by Swiss Lenana Motel, Radisson Blu, Villa Rosa Kempinski, Golden Tulip, Amber, Ibis Styles.

Upcoming brands such as the 64-storeyed Hilton Upper Hill among others across the country show Kenya’s tourism projections are positive.

Last year Kenya received 1.1 million tourists mainly entering Kenya for business and leisure, with 2017’s projects currently set at 1.4 million.

About 937,000 tourists were hosted on holiday, 78,000 were business travellers and a further 136,000 tourists visiting for other reasons.

Online travel marketer Jumia Country Manager Cyrus Onyiego urged passenger airlines and tourist hotels to introduce special rates to cater for local travellers.

Mr Onyiego said Kenyans were keen to travel locally but were discouraged by exorbitant fees charged by the hotels.

It is cheaper to fly from Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam to Kigali in Rwanda than it is to fly from Nairobi to Mombasa.

Hotels also need to come up with an innovative pricing model that embraces cheaper pricing for advance family bookings for locals, he said.

Ms Odemba said Kenya continues to record high tourism arrivals due to the relative peace that has continued to prevail even after the Supreme Court annulled the August 8 presidential election results.

Tourism expert Carmen Nibigira reiterated her call to African governments to open up borders for intra-Africa travel, saying affordable air fares could be realised if governments eased all charges levied on incoming airlines as well as zero-rating of visa charges like Europe and America had done.


Tourism Observer

AFRICA: Dificulty Traveling In Africa, Visa Acquisition A Nightmare

Africans traveling within the continent are required to fill multiple cross-border documents with visa issuance becoming a nuisance and hindrance to business development, tourism, and investments between the African people.

Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian tycoon and the richest man on this continent, is among key personalities facing traveling hiccups when moving from one country to another in search of investment opportunities.

In his recent discussions with Nigerian media, Dangote has advised African leaders to give incentives to investors and make intra-Africa travel easy.

He told the Nigeria media outlets that despite the size of his group and investments on the continent, he needs 38 visas to travel across Africa.

“You have to know somebody who is big in that country to call somebody. They are giving you visas as if it is a favor,” Dangote said.

“Somebody like me, despite the size of our group, I need 38 visas to move around Africa. Yes, I have heard that they are going to do the (African) passport, but you can see that there is still a little bit of resistance from other African leaders,” he noted.

Dangote uses many public platforms to urge African leaders to make it easier for Africans to travel around their own continent. He said he needed 38 visas to travel across Africa, and it was not always straightforward to get them.

“You go to a country that is looking for investment; that particular country will give you a runaround just to get a visa,” he said.

During their fourth annual Africa Hotel Expansion Summit and Hospitality Round Table in the Tanzanian commercial city of Dar es Salaam last month, hotel and hospitality industry executives noted that Africa needs to establish intra-Africa travel packages to attract tourists within the continent.

“Africa needs to encourage intra-Africa travel programs that would attract more people to travel from one country to another country within the continent,” said Amaechi Ndili, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lionstone Group and Golden Tulip West Africa Hospitality Group in Nigeria.

“We need to stimulate intra-Africa tourism and business travel while governments across the continent take serious steps and policies to create more open skies for Africans,” Ndili noted.

South Africans often complain about the hoops they have to jump through to get visas for other African states, but in fact, their country is part of the problem. According to the African Development Bank, 75 percent of the most visa-friendly countries in Africa are in East Africa.

In Southern Africa, the visa-friendly nations are Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia, and Mozambique. West Africa fares better with six countries regarded as visa-friendly. Nigeria is not among them.

Facing development set-backs, high unemployment rates, and poor security, Africa remains low in terms of global tourism index.

In the context of tourism competitiveness in Africa, most countries in the continent are still lacking competitive tools to support growth and competition in tourism at global market levels, despite the continent’s rich and untapped natural resources.

The hotel executives further noted that more than 80 percent of Africans don’t know tourist attractive sites available in their own countries compared to Europe, America, and other continents where the citizens outnumber foreign tourists.

Nigeria is the leading country in Africa to generate outbound tourists to other countries within the continent, mostly to other West African states, as well as East and Southern Africa.

Dangote’s comments were made at the right time when tourism and travel executives are set to meet in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali next month to discuss the future of African tourism and the way forward.

Bearing a theme of “Destination Africa: The Future of African Tourism,” the the African Travel Association’s 41st congress will be held in Kigali from November 14 to 18, bringing together delegates from Africa, the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world.

To be taking place in East Africa for three consecutive years, the ATA’s 41st Congress is set to focus the East African region as the single tourist destination in Africa and best for combined African safaris.

Rwanda has been honored to host the ATA 41st Congress this year as the first event organized by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) and ATA.

Louvre Hotels Group Signs Partnership With Chinese Online Tourism Platform

On December 1st, Louvre Hotels Group signed a partnership agreement with Travelzen, a Chinese online booking platform. Its Campanile, Kyriad and Golden Tulip brands are now available to 9 million e-consumers who use the various Travelzen platforms every year.

According to a report by the Chinese Academy of Tourism, over 2 million Chinese booked their trips using internet sites or applications in 2016, and these bookings concern only the official Chinese national vacation period. Over 100 million Chinese travelled outside of the country, including 9 million business travellers via the Travelzen platform, the biggest airline ticket outlet in China.

This new fast-growing Chinese clientele, ultra-connected and eager for personal experiences is a promising market for Louvre Hotels Group. The second biggest hotel group in Europe decided to enable Chinese travellers to book its hotels via the Travelzen platform and its packages combining flights and hotels.

“Chinese leisure and business tourists are very connected and use specific booking and payment channels. We are striving to strengthen our presence and expertise throughout their customer experience. We need the best partners to meet the demands of a highly digitalised Chinese economy, from pre-sale to payment means,” maintains Pierre-Frédéric Roulot, CEO of Louvre Hotels Group.

This partnership joins the group’s many initiatives to boost its presence in South-East Asia. For example, on October 15, the group inaugurated its first Campanile in Shanghai and plans to open two Campanile hotels per week in China over the next three years.

At the same time, Louvre Hotels Group is actively developing in the countries most visited by Chinese tourists, especially South Korea and Indonesia.

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia Tourism To Grow Threefold In Five Years

Ethiopia aims to triple its number of foreign visitors to more than 2.5 million by 2020, making tourism a pillar of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Buoyed by huge spending on infrastructure and an expansion of its services and agricultural sectors, Addis Ababa expects annual economic growth of around 11 percent for the next five years.

Though lacking the palm-fringed beaches and safari trails of neighboring Kenya and Tanzania, the Horn of Africa country boasts magnificent terrain and a fascinating imperial past.

Visitor numbers have risen at least 10 percent a year for the past decade. More than 750,000 tourists came during fiscal year 2014/2015, generating $2.9 billion for the economy, said Culture and Tourism Minister Amin Abdulkadir.

“There is a lot of demand in terms of bookings and investment plans. Our target is to receive more than 2.5 million in five years’ time,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“This sector will generate foreign direct investment and foreign currency and create job opportunities, as well as contribute to image-building.”

Hilton Worldwide Holdings signed a management deal on Wednesday to open its first hotel in Ethiopia in more than four decades, while sub-Saharan Africa’s first Marriott-branded serviced apartments have also been unveiled in the capital.

Sheraton, Radisson and Golden Tulip are among a handful of global groups already operating, and U.S. chain Best Western International Inc, France’s AccorHotels and Ramada say they are also working on new projects.

“We are a peaceful and stable country. Plus, we have the right policies and strategies,” said Amin. “It will not be long before we reach the levels of our neighbors.”

NIGERIA: Top 25 Ranked Hotels In Lagos

Travellers Magazine, West Africa’s foremost travel journal has released the Top 25 most ranked hotels in Lagos.

The ranking for the top 25 hotels was released after a 2 month long survey of Travellers and Travel trade practitioners in Nigeria.

The survey for the top 100 hotels was done through personal questionnaires, survey of Hotel managers and secret vote by Travel Journalists in Lagos and online voting. The online voting was done via the largest travel news website in Africa www.atqnews.com.

Questionnaires were delivered as newsletters to over 25000 people globally and the votes were collated using the Survey Monkey software. Each voter was asked to rank the top 15 Hotels out of all the leading hotels in Lagos giving reasons for the ranking.

At the end of the survey, the hotels were now arranged according to the number of high ranks they had garnered. Eko hotel had the highest number of number one votes in all the collated.

Other hotels that did very well in the ranking includes Federal Palace, Oriental Hotel, 4 points by Sheraton, Intercontinental Hotel, Southern Sun hotel, Sheraton Ikeja hotel, Wheat Baker, Golden Tulip Festac, Protea Ikeja (Bon Hotels). Others in the pact include, De Renaissance, Moore House, VCP, African Sun (Golden Tulip), Welcome Centre, Parkview Astoria, Radisson Blu, Lilygate, Westwood, Stop Over Motel, Protea Leadway, Bestwestern VI, Protea Kuramo, The George and Bogobori.

The ranking for these hospitality providers were based on the perceived service rendered, Location, facilities, and capacity of the hotels.

The Full results for the Top 100 hotel in Lagos will be published in the next edition of Travellers magazine, and will be carried on www.atqnews.com, It will also be shared on different social media platforms.

Travellers Magazine will be presenting certificates to the Top 100 Hotels at the Hospitality Day on the 24thNovember 2015 at the 11th AKWAABA Travel Market at Eko Hotel.

The presentation of certificate is a mark of Recognition and to encourage the hotels to maintain their standards and also to encourage other hotels not so choosen to up their games in the hospitality business and improve their appeal to the public.

Travellers Magazine started the Top 100 Hotels survey in 2001 and stopped the annual survey in 2006 when the then DG of NTDC Dr. Eborieme set up the national Hotel Classification committee to grade hotels in Nigeria. Because the Publisher of Travellers Mr. Ikechi Uko was co-opted as a member of the committee it suspended it’s annual survey in order not to confuse the public with it’s survey. Considering the new reality and the need to guide travellers and hotel guests aright Travellers decided to reintroduce it’s annual survey. It carried out the survey as part of its social services to travellers in Nigeria. It is the first travel Magazine in West Africa Published since 1996.The journal serves as a one stop shop for airlines, Hotels, Restaurants, Tour operators, Travel Agents, State Tourism Board etc.

Travellers’ magazine is set to be the in-house magazine of over 100 hotels in Nigeria and Ghana. Already Guests of Holiday Inn Airport hotel Accra and La Palm Royal Beach Hotel Accra and Southern Sun hotel Lagos will be served copies of Travellers for their Reading comfort.

It is now an inflight magazine for Africa World Airlines that flies between Ghana and Nigeria and also within Ghana. AWA was voted as the best Domestic Airline in Ghana. AWA is the strategic partner to South African Airlines on the Accra/Washington DC route.

AWA is expected to carry all SAA passengers between Nigeria and Ghana. This partnership provides a huge opportunity for visibility. It was the inflight magazine for Virgin Nigeria before it stopped operating.

ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia To Triple Tourist Numbers By 2020

Ethiopia aims to triple its number of foreign visitors to more than 2.5 million by 2020, making tourism a pillar of one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Buoyed by huge spending on infrastructure and an expansion of its services and agricultural sectors, Addis Ababa expects annual economic growth of around 11 percent for the next five years.

Though lacking the palm-fringed beaches and safari trails of neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania, the Horn of Africa country boasts magnificent terrain and a fascinating imperial past.

Visitor numbers have risen at least 10 percent a year for the past decade, albeit from a very low base. More than 750,000 tourists came during fiscal year 2014/2015, generating $2.9 billion for the economy, said Culture and Tourism Minister Amin Abdulkadir.

“There is a lot of demand in terms of bookings and investment plans. Our target is to receive more than 2.5 million in five years time,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“This sector will generate foreign direct investment and foreign currency and create job opportunities, as well as contribute to image-building.”

Hilton Worldwide Holdings signed a management deal on Wednesday to open its first hotel in Ethiopia in more than four decades, while sub-Saharan Africa’s first Marriott-branded serviced apartments have also been unveiled in the capital.

Sheraton, Radisson and Golden Tulip are among a handful of global groups already operating, and U.S. chain Best Western International Inc, France’s AccorHotels and Ramada say they are also working on new projects.

Ethiopia’s target for 2020 looks modest, however, in comparison to that of Egypt, where 9.9 million tourists visited last year.

“We are a peaceful and stable country. Plus, we have the right policies and strategies,” said Amin. “It will not be long before we reach the levels of our neighbours.”