Radisson Blu leads in hotel development in Africa

Radisson Hotel Dakar, Diamniadio

In a period of strong growth, the Radisson Hotel Group has doubled its African portfolio within the last four years, opening a new hotel every 60 days and signing a new hotel deal every 40 days. This growth has spiked the group’s portfolio in Africa to 86 hotels (17,800 rooms) in operation and under development across 30 countries.

"With 111 hotel brands active in Africa today, we are delighted that Radisson Blu leads the way in Africa with more hotels under development than any other hotel brand. Our strong growth is set to continue with the execution of our ambitious five-year development plan that will focus on scaled growth in 23 of the 60 larger cities in Africa to create operational synergies," says Elie Younes, executive vice president and chief development officer, Radisson Hotel Group.

As part of the company’s recent rebranding to Radisson Hotel Group, a new global brand architecture was introduced, which included two new brands; Radisson Collection positioned as the premium lifestyle and affordable luxury and Radisson as the upscale hotel brand.

Extending future hotel supply

Senior vice president, development, sub-Saharan Africa, Radisson Hotel Group, Andrew Mclachlan said: "We aim to add a further 50 hotels to sub-Saharan Africa, of which 65% of our future hotel supply will come from our newer brands, specifically Radisson, which is positioned in the full service upscale segment, perfectly positioned between Radisson Blu in the upper upscale and Park Inn by Radisson in the upper midscale segments. In addition, we will selectively add a number of key Radisson Collection hotels and grow on the successful opening of RED Radisson in Cape Town in the lifestyle upscale segment of the market."

McLachlan added: "With our new brand segmentation, we have the potential to operate more than 10 hotels within cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos providing real scale and operational synergies. While cities such as Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Abidjan, Dar es Salaam, Durban and Dakar have the potential to have more than five hotels under our various hotel brands.

"This strategy will reinforce our presence in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia. It will also develop a robust portfolio across the cities within Africa’s three largest economic communities. We will continue to focus on delivering on our expanding pipeline, by opening these hotels and strategically using the financial support from AfriNord Hotel Investments along with key D&B contractors."

Radisson Hotel Group intends to invest significantly over the next five years into platforms and technology, including a comprehensive IT programme for integration, new property management and distribution platforms along with new CRM, loyalty and campaign management platforms. It will also make significant investments in rebranding or repositioning more than 500 hotels globally.