Hotel Partners Africa (HPA) has released the African Hotel Report 2015 on the African Hotels Investment Forum (AHIF) conducted from September 30th to October 1st in Addis Abeba.
In terms of economic growth, the report found Ethiopia in the top 10, with 49.8 billion dollars, in contrast to number one the Nigerian economy of 594.3 billion dollars.
Neighbouring Kenya is the giant of the region in hotel marketing, having 10 times more beds per million habitats than Ethiopia. In that regard the report dubbed Ethiopia the ‘sleeping giant’ of the region, for having only three brand name hotels over the last 100 years, with two more joining the market in the past 10 years. With surprising escalation of investment in branded hotels there are 11 projects in the pipeline, two started operations this year, and a third slated to open in December.
Regarding methodology in compiling the report, its author, David Harper, head of Property Services for HPA, said, “Basically we have hypothetically created identical quality and style properties across all the countries surveyed, so that simple comparisons could be made.”
Participants at the Forum critiqued the report’s quality, expressing reservations on methodology, sample representativeness of the sample and manner of engagement. However, it was pointed out that such reports should be considered as only indicative not conclusive.
Earlier in September, a survey by STR, a global hospitality research firm, declared Addis Abeba the most expensive place for a good night’s sleep.
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