CAPE TOWN - Radisson Blu aims to anchor its position as Africa’s top hotel brand by adding a further 50 hotels on the continent.
The hotel brand is part of the Radisson Hotel Group, the largest upmarket brand in Europe, and now takes over as the fastest-growing hotel brand in Africa.
The group, in a period of strong growth, has doubled its African portfolio in the past four years, opening a new hotel every 60 days and signing a new hotel deal every 40 days, spiking its portfolio in Africa to 86 hotels, equating to 17 800 rooms in operation and under development across 30 countries.
Radisson Blu, part of the Radisson Hotel Group, was already the largest upper-upscale brand in Europe and now takes over as the fastest-growing hotel brand in Africa.
The W Hospitality Pipeline Report 2018, released last week, ranked Radisson Blu as the leading individual hotel brand with the largest number of hotels under construction in Africa.
Elie Younes, the executive vice-president and chief development officer at the Radisson Hotel Group, said the group was delighted that Radisson Blu led the way in Africa with more hotels under development than any other hotel brand, with 111 hotel brands active on the continent today.
“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,” said Younes.
Andrew McLachlan, the Radisson Hotel Group’s senior vice-president for development for sub-Saharan Africa, said the group aimed to add a further 50 hotels to the continent.
McLachlan said of the 50 hotels, 65 percent of the group’s future hotel supply would come from its newer brands, specifically Radisson, which was in the full-service upscale segment and was perfectly positioned between Radisson Blu in the upper-upscale and Park Inn by Radisson in the upper-midscale segments.
“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.
According to the group, the Radisson Red at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town is the only one in Africa. McLachlan said that with the group’s new brand segmentation it had the potential to operate more than 10 hotels within cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos, thereby providing real scale and operational synergies, while cities such as Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Durban and Dakar had the potential to have more than five hotels under the group’s 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,” said McLachlan.
The group announced earlier this month that the first Radisson Blu was set to open in Durban – the Radisson Blu Hotel Durban Oceans uMhlanga – which was scheduled to open within the next two years.