By Terence Baker (Article from HNN)
 
Hoteliers based in Africa said the continent’s hotel industry is evolving with new demand drivers and growing country populations.
 
The African hotel industry even earned its own panel and discussion for the first time at Gulf & Indian Ocean Hotel Investors’ Summit recently. Moderator Trevor Ward, managing director of W Hospitality Group and a resident of Lagos, Nigeria, said the regional hotel performance is no longer dependent on primary monetary contributors such as oil and gas. Instead, markets with wider economic bases are leading the way.
 
“Angola, Algeria, Gabon and others, those energy-producing countries, are in the doldrums,” Ward said.
 
Bani Haddad, managing director of Middle East development at Dream Hotel Group—which has four brands and a development pipeline in Africa—said the opposite ends of the chain scale spectrum are performing well.
 
“The biggest demand is from locals driving midscale and economy segments, and most assets are under 100 keys, although there is a gap for luxury products in key cities,” Haddad said. “What is encouraging is that we are at the beginning of the cycle for many of these countries, and it is a beautiful market for investors.”
 
Vacation destinations are also thriving, according to Sara Rosso, president and CEO of management company Planhotel Hospitality Group. Planhotel has eight assets under brands Diamonds Hotels & Resorts and Sandies Hotels & Resorts in Kenya, Maldives, Mozambique and Tanzania (Zanzibar).
 
“If Zanzibar gets the same politics as Maldives, it will be the next star, and Kenya is a huge opportunity coupled with strong local demand,” Rosso said.
 
Investors are also conscious of that vacation demand, panelists said.
 
“Visitors look for white sand, and there is a sense that Africa does not have it, which is not true,” said Raoul Gufflet, deputy CEO and head of corporate and institutional banking at The Mauritius Commercial Bank. “Also, Africa only has 5% of the world’s hotel supply.”
 
Panelists agreed that the most important catalyst in Africa’s hotel evolution is how capital views the continent.
 
“Only five investment-grade countries exist in all of Africa, and this is something that investors would always want to take a look at,” Gufflet said. “If I was an investor in Africa, I would want 20% yield, and that would require finance to leverage that investment.”
 
“Much depends on where you get financing from,” Haddad said. “Local financing in Africa is very expensive.”
 
While tourism marketing still lags in most African countries, Rosso said domestic travel is growing. “We’re starting to see Nigerians come on vacation to Kenya. That’s a start,” Rosso said.
 
Risk and reward

It might be a cliché, panelists said, but “slowly, slowly” is the mantra in Africa, and that applies to African hotel development.
 
“‘Pole, pole’—slowly, slowly—is the expression,” Rosso said. “They say here that everything is impossible, but it becomes possible, as opposed to the West where everything is possible, and then they tell you what can’t be done. You need determination and time.”
 
Such risks even are inherent in markets that are regarded as being more settled, according to panelists.
 
“Mauritius has gone through its problems of high-development costs, but if I am to mention problems, I can only do so in comparison with those of the rest of Africa,” Gufflet said. “When I was young everyone talked about Mauritius, and today they’re still talking about Mauritius, but yet the destination has changed.” Gufflet added hoteliers there are trying to bring guests out of the resorts to savor local attractions. “They’re doing that just a little, so as not to lose too much revenue, but you have to have something to show,” he said. “That’s not a problem in Africa, parts of which have this in plenty.”
 
“Kenya has been negative in the last years, due to security issues on the coast, but Nairobi and Zanzibar are great.” —Sara Rosso, Planhotel Hospitality
 
“We are opening what is the first international brand in Monrovia, Liberia, which has oil, rubber, surfing culture. We believe it will command high prices and thus yield, but as the operator is totally unleveraged, we can only really guess, but under the 20s (percentiles) for sure.” —Bani Haddad, Dream Hotel Group
 
“Liberia was one of only three countries directly affected by the Ebola virus, but which had an impact on all of Africa.” —Trevor Ward, W Hospitality Group
 
“Destinations such as Banjul, Gambia, have just simply gone as vacation destinations.” —Rosso
 
“Senegal has been stable in the last six to eight years, but demand has not grown.” —Haddad
 
“Local demand is growing in Kenya on the resort side, too, and it is one of the most developed (in Africa) in terms of banks. Travel around Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania has been helped by cooperation between the three, and there is a very strong Indian community that is very well off, in fact forming the majority of the hotel ownership.” —Rosso
 
【译文】
 
非洲旅馆经营者称，非洲酒店业发展中正面临新的需求驱动因素以及国家人口的增长问题。
 
近日在“海湾及印度洋酒店投资者峰会”上，非洲酒店业第一次开了自己的座谈及讨论会议。峰会主持人Trevor Ward，同时也是W酒店服务业集团总经理以及尼日利亚拉各斯居民，表示当地酒店业的表现不再依赖主要的货币贡献者，如石油和天然气。取而代之起领头作用的是具有广泛经济基础的市场。
 
Ward表示，“安哥拉，阿尔及利亚，加蓬以及其它一些能源生产国都处在萧条时期。”
 
梦想酒店集团（这家集团在非洲拥有四大品牌以及一个开业及筹建酒店项目）中东开发区总经理Bani Haddad则称，连锁规模系列的另一端表现良好。“尽管与重点城市的奢侈产品相比存在差距，最大的需求仍来自于当地强劲的中档规模和经济型板块，同时多数资产不足100个房间。令人振奋的一点是，我们正处于这许多国家圈子的开端，这对于投资者来说将会是一个美好的市场。”
 
根据管理公司Planhotel酒店服务业集团总裁兼CEO Sara Rosso的描述，度假目的地同样兴旺。Planhotel旗下的钻石酒店及度假村和Sandies酒店及度假村在肯尼亚、马尔代夫、莫桑比克以及坦桑尼亚（桑给巴尔岛）共拥有八处资产。
 
Rosso表示，“如果桑给巴尔岛与马尔代夫政治环境相同，它将成为下一颗新星，肯尼亚将带来拥有强劲内需的巨大机会。
 
座谈会议小组成员指出，“投资者还意识到度假的需求。”
 
毛里求斯商业银行对公业务负责人及副首席执行官Raoul Gufflet认为，“游客想要寻找白色沙滩，但有一种说法是非洲并没有白色沙滩，这是不正确的。另外，非洲仅有世界酒店5%的供给。”
 
会议成员一致赞同，非洲酒店发展最重要的催化剂是资本如何布局这块大陆。
 
Gufflet谈到，整个非洲地区仅存在5个投资级别的国家，这是投资者总想要看一看的东西。如果我是非洲的投资商，我会希望收益率在20%，这就需要利用金融杠杆来影响投资。
 
Haddad表示，这更多的取决于你从哪里获得融资，非洲当地融资非常地昂贵。
 
Rosso则认为，虽然大部分非洲国家的旅游营销依然滞后，其国内旅游却在在增长，我们开始看到尼日利亚人来肯尼亚度假，这正是一个开端。
 
风险与回报
 
座谈小组成员表示，这可能是老生常谈，但是“慢一点，慢一点”是非洲地区的口头禅，并且这可以应用到非洲酒店的发展当中。
 
Rosso表示，“‘波尔，波尔’——慢一点，慢一点——是一种表达。有人说在非洲一切皆不可能，但最终却成为了可能；这正好和西方相反，西方一切皆有可能，然后就会有人告诉你什么是不能做的。你需要决心和时间。”
 
据座谈小组成员描述，这种风险甚至是市场固有的、被认为是更需要解决的。
 
Gufflet称，“毛里求斯已经解决了高开发成本的问题，但若要指出存在的问题，则需与非洲其它地区作比较。我年轻的时候每个人都在谈论毛里求斯，如今他们仍在谈论毛里求斯，但是这个旅游目的地已经发生了变化。毛里求斯的旅馆经营者正尝试将顾客带出度假村，去享受当地的美景。他们只是偶尔这样做，所以不会损失太多的收入，但你必须要有东西可以展示，这不仅是非洲的问题，虽然非洲部分地区都大量存在这样的问题。”
 
“在过去的一年，因为海岸线上安全的问题，肯尼亚表现得非常的消极，而内罗毕和桑给巴尔岛却表现非凡。”Planhotel酒店服务业集团Sara Rosso这么表示。
 
“在利比里亚首都蒙罗维亚这座拥有石油、橡胶和冲浪文化的城市，我们正在开发第一个国际品牌。我们相信它将控制过高的价格并带来收益，但是由于运营商完全没有杠杆资金，我们只能依靠猜测，但能确定其收益率低于20%。”梦想酒店集团Bani Haddad分享道。
 
“埃博拉病毒曾影响了整个非洲地区，然而利比里亚却是仅三个直接受到埃博拉病毒影响的国家之一。”W酒店服务业集团Trevor Ward说。
 
“像冈比亚首都班珠尔这样的目的地，仅仅只能作为旅游目的地而去游览。”Rosso说。
 
“塞内加尔在过去的6至8年间十分稳定，但需求却未增长。”Haddad说。
 
“肯尼亚的度假胜地方面本地需求也在增长，同时它也是非洲在银行业务方面最发达的地区之一。肯尼亚、乌干达和坦桑尼亚这三个国家之间互相合作，使得这三国的旅行变得更加便捷，那儿还有一个相当富裕强大的印度社群，这个社群事实上占有了绝大部分的酒店所有权。”Rosso说。