The African hotel sector offers growth potential over the next five years

Last week, Thursday, I was invited by PwC to attend a press conference at Rosebank's 54 on Bath, where PwC shared the findings of its report on the 2018 Outlook hotels. 2022.

The Outlook provides insight into how the hotel industry in South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya, and Tanzania is expected to grow over the next few years. It also included interesting information on tourism, the complex cybersecurity risks that the industry faces today and the impact of the drought on the hotel sector SA

Pietro Calicchio, Head of Hospitality & Gaming for PwC Southern Africa, chaired the meeting. "Tourism on the African continent has shown resilience in the face of economic and political uncertainty, the impacts of drought and other regulatory changes," he said. "There are many opportunities for this industry to benefit more from growth."

"However, as we continue to see, there are also a number of challenges that every country faces: an industry that responds to the slightest change. in policy, regulation, security and sustainability. "

Some interesting conclusions from the report:

• The report predicts that hotel room receipts for the five markets will increase at a compound annual rate from 7.4% to 50.5 billion rand in 2022 against 35.2 billion in 2017. [19659007] The turnover of South African hotel rooms is expected to reach 21.8 billion rand in 2022, up 5.6% per year, up from 16.6 billion in 2017. The growth of hotel rooms in South Africa remains similar to that forecast for 2017 We also expect that rates for hotels in South Africa will continue to grow. occupation will continue to increase during the forecast period and reach 62.5% in 2022.
• The number of international visitors to South Africa continued to grow with an overall increase of 2.4%. The outlook for 2018 remains positive but at lower percentages than in 2016. The report predicts that the number of foreign visitors and domestic tourism will increase by 5.3% in 2018. The total number of travelers in South Africa is expected to reach 19.5 million by 2022, an annual increase of 4% from 16 million in 2017. "There is also a debate on further easing visa requirements for international visitors, which could impact our forecasts. of growth, "said Calicchio. In 2016, visitors from China to South Africa dropped by 17% in 2017. Indian travelers recorded a modest growth of 2.7% in 2017, well below the increase of 21.7% recorded in 2016. Among non-African countries, the United Kingdom remains the main source of South Africa with 447,901 in 2017, contributing to overall growth of 7.2% of visitors from non-African countries in 2017. Among the African visitors, the largest number came from Zimbabwe to 2 million, followed by Lesotho to 1.8. Nigeria is expected to be the fastest growing country in the next five years. A number of new hotels must be open during this period. The continuous improvement of the national economy will also result in faster overnight growth. Kenya, Tanzania and Mauritius are expected to be the second fastest growing, with annual increases of 9.6%, 9.1% and 7.2%, respectively.
• South Africa is expected to be the slowest growing market with a compound annual increase of 5.6% of room revenues.