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
 
【譯文】
 
非洲旅館經(jīng)營者稱，非洲酒店業(yè)發(fā)展中正面臨新的需求驅(qū)動因素以及國家人口的增長問題。
 
近日在“海灣及印度洋酒店投資者峰會”上，非洲酒店業(yè)第一次開了自己的座談及討論會議。峰會主持人Trevor Ward，同時也是W酒店服務(wù)業(yè)集團(tuán)總經(jīng)理以及尼日利亞拉各斯居民，表示當(dāng)?shù)鼐频陿I(yè)的表現(xiàn)不再依賴主要的貨幣貢獻(xiàn)者，如石油和天然氣。取而代之起領(lǐng)頭作用的是具有廣泛經(jīng)濟(jì)基礎(chǔ)的市場。
 
Ward表示，“安哥拉，阿爾及利亞，加蓬以及其它一些能源生產(chǎn)國都處在蕭條時期。”
 
夢想酒店集團(tuán)（這家集團(tuán)在非洲擁有四大品牌以及一個開業(yè)及籌建酒店項目）中東開發(fā)區(qū)總經(jīng)理Bani Haddad則稱，連鎖規(guī)模系列的另一端表現(xiàn)良好。“盡管與重點(diǎn)城市的奢侈產(chǎn)品相比存在差距，最大的需求仍來自于當(dāng)?shù)貜?qiáng)勁的中檔規(guī)模和經(jīng)濟(jì)型板塊，同時多數(shù)資產(chǎn)不足100個房間。令人振奮的一點(diǎn)是，我們正處于這許多國家圈子的開端，這對于投資者來說將會是一個美好的市場。”
 
根據(jù)管理公司Planhotel酒店服務(wù)業(yè)集團(tuán)總裁兼CEO Sara Rosso的描述，度假目的地同樣興旺。Planhotel旗下的鉆石酒店及度假村和Sandies酒店及度假村在肯尼亞、馬爾代夫、莫桑比克以及坦桑尼亞（桑給巴爾島）共擁有八處資產(chǎn)。
 
Rosso表示，“如果桑給巴爾島與馬爾代夫政治環(huán)境相同，它將成為下一顆新星，肯尼亞將帶來擁有強(qiáng)勁內(nèi)需的巨大機(jī)會。
 
座談會議小組成員指出，“投資者還意識到度假的需求。”
 
毛里求斯商業(yè)銀行對公業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人及副首席執(zhí)行官Raoul Gufflet認(rèn)為，“游客想要尋找白色沙灘，但有一種說法是非洲并沒有白色沙灘，這是不正確的。另外，非洲僅有世界酒店5%的供給。”
 
會議成員一致贊同，非洲酒店發(fā)展最重要的催化劑是資本如何布局這塊大陸。
 
Gufflet談到，整個非洲地區(qū)僅存在5個投資級別的國家，這是投資者總想要看一看的東西。如果我是非洲的投資商，我會希望收益率在20%，這就需要利用金融杠桿來影響投資。
 
Haddad表示，這更多的取決于你從哪里獲得融資，非洲當(dāng)?shù)厝谫Y非常地昂貴。
 
Rosso則認(rèn)為，雖然大部分非洲國家的旅游營銷依然滯后，其國內(nèi)旅游卻在在增長，我們開始看到尼日利亞人來肯尼亞度假，這正是一個開端。
 
風(fēng)險與回報
 
座談小組成員表示，這可能是老生常談，但是“慢一點(diǎn)，慢一點(diǎn)”是非洲地區(qū)的口頭禪，并且這可以應(yīng)用到非洲酒店的發(fā)展當(dāng)中。
 
Rosso表示，“‘波爾，波爾’——慢一點(diǎn)，慢一點(diǎn)——是一種表達(dá)。有人說在非洲一切皆不可能，但最終卻成為了可能；這正好和西方相反，西方一切皆有可能，然后就會有人告訴你什么是不能做的。你需要決心和時間。”
 
據(jù)座談小組成員描述，這種風(fēng)險甚至是市場固有的、被認(rèn)為是更需要解決的。
 
Gufflet稱，“毛里求斯已經(jīng)解決了高開發(fā)成本的問題，但若要指出存在的問題，則需與非洲其它地區(qū)作比較。我年輕的時候每個人都在談?wù)撁�里求斯，如今他們�(nèi)栽谡務(wù)撁�里求斯，但是這個旅游目的地已經(jīng)發(fā)生了變化。毛里求斯的旅館經(jīng)營者正嘗試將顧客帶出度假村，去享受當(dāng)?shù)氐拿谰啊Ｋ麄冎皇桥紶栠@樣做，所以不會損失太多的收入，但你必須要有東西可以展示，這不僅是非洲的問題，雖然非洲部分地區(qū)都大量存在這樣的問題。”
 
“在過去的一年，因為海岸線上安全的問題，肯尼亞表現(xiàn)得非常的消極，而內(nèi)羅畢和桑給巴爾島卻表現(xiàn)非凡。”Planhotel酒店服務(wù)業(yè)集團(tuán)Sara Rosso這么表示。
 
“在利比里亞首都蒙羅維亞這座擁有石油、橡膠和沖浪文化的城市，我們正在開發(fā)第一個國際品牌。我們相信它將控制過高的價格并帶來收益，但是由于運(yùn)營商完全沒有杠桿資金，我們只能依靠猜測，但能確定其收益率低于20%。”夢想酒店集團(tuán)Bani Haddad分享道。
 
“埃博拉病毒曾影響了整個非洲地區(qū)，然而利比里亞卻是僅三個直接受到埃博拉病毒影響的國家之一。”W酒店服務(wù)業(yè)集團(tuán)Trevor Ward說。
 
“像岡比亞首都班珠爾這樣的目的地，僅僅只能作為旅游目的地而去游覽。”Rosso說。
 
“塞內(nèi)加爾在過去的6至8年間十分穩(wěn)定，但需求卻未增長。”Haddad說。
 
“肯尼亞的度假勝地方面本地需求也在增長，同時它也是非洲在銀行業(yè)務(wù)方面最發(fā)達(dá)的地區(qū)之一。肯尼亞、烏干達(dá)和坦桑尼亞這三個國家之間互相合作，使得這三國的旅行變得更加便捷，那兒還有一個相當(dāng)富裕強(qiáng)大的印度社群，這個社群事實上占有了絕大部分的酒店所有權(quán)。”Rosso說。