Hotel development projects in Ethiopia are almost 50 per cent higher from last year, according to a new report, leading East Africa on this front.
Government incentives, international conferences and NGOs, embassies and aid agencies have all fueled the hotel growth in Addis Ababa.
HYATT Hotels Corp plans to open its first hotel in Ethiopia by the end of the year as it seeks to double its African portfolio to tap growing visits by both African and Chinese travellers.
Hyatt in October said it would invest an estimated US$200 million in new hotels on the continent.
The property in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, will be followed by Hyatt’s first hotels in Algeria and Senegal in early 2019 and Kenya the year after, according to Kurt Straub, the company’s vice president for the Middle East and Africa.
Hyatt is also looking into opening outlets in the Ethiopian cities of Awasa and Mekelle.
It also sees major opportunities from a growing Chinese market and intra-African travel, according to Tejas Shah, the company’s regional vice president for sub-Saharan Africa.
China’s middle class is “travelling tremendously” with the number of passport-holders growing, while India, too, “will start to travel”, he said in the same interview.
