Africa continues to grow despite Covid-19 pandemic
share this article
1 min
African hotel development continued its growth trend in 2020, with 82,000 rooms in 447 hotels in the pipeline at the beginning of 2021. This is according to the 13
th annual survey by W Hospitality Group, acknowledged as the industry’s most authoritative source on growth and development. Whilst the Covid-19 outbreak had a profoundly negative impact on Africa’s hotel operations, the impact on deal signing was, surprisingly, much less – there were 71 deals with 10,000 rooms signed since the last study, down “only” 30 per cent on the previous year.
Advertisements
Whilst the continued activity by the chains in expanding their footprint contributed to the increase in the pipeline, another factor was the reduction in the number of hotels opening. It was anticipated at the beginning of 2020 that 90 hotels with 17,000 rooms would open across Africa during the year, but in the event only about 25% of those opened their doors. The reasons for that are well known.