The hunting of animals and other creatures for sport, choosing individual “kills” or trophies, with exceptional physical attributes such as the biggest horns, must be the most paradoxical sector of the global tourism industry.  Not only paradoxical, but also the most controversial, depending on your point of view.  There are some 23 countries in Africa […]

In sub-Saharan Africa, the casino industry is biggest in South Africa, where gaming giants such as Tsogo Sun, Peermont and Sun International dominate the land-based industry.  All three companies have casinos located in hotels that they manage, as well as stand-alone operations.  Elsewhere, Kenya has a reasonably large gaming industry, although most operations are quite […]

We watched the revolutions on television.  Night after night we were shown pictures of riots in the centre of Cairo and Tunis, and we joined the revolutions in our sitting rooms, willing the demonstrators to succeed.  And we reached for the telephone and cancelled our holiday plans, withdrawing our economic support for the same countries […]

Announcing a new hotel opening in Chad recently, Hilton stated that their ambition is to have a hotel in “every major city in Africa”.  This is an advance on a previous announcement that they wanted to be in every capital city (54, at the latest count!), and is a recognition that there are many opportunities […]

If you look at the world map, with all the little lights representing an international hotel chain property, Africa is still “The Dark Continent”.  There are a couple of exceptions, of course, namely Egypt and South Africa, but even in the latter there are not many, and of late the number has reduced with rebranding […]

One of the mainstays of the hotel industry in Africa is hosting conferences and other events. The experts once said that video conferencing and other technology spelt the death of the meetings industry – everything would be virtual! Wrong again – a survey by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) of a specific segment […]

Each year the West Africa-based W Hospitality Group carries out a survey of the main hotel brands’ development activities in Africa.  Based on information supplied by the chains themselves, this research tracks signed and confirmed deals for management contracts and other deals (management contracts are by far the majority of agreements signed) in the 53 […]

Being in a service industry, it will come as no surprise to learn that the payroll is the largest cost a hotel incurs.  In some environments it could be as much as 30 per cent of revenue, whilst in others below 15 per cent may be the norm. Hotels need staff in all areas – […]

I saw a headline the other day on Huffington Post.com – “Super Efficient Crew Builds 15-Storey Chinese Hotel in Just six days”.  There was a video with it, which showed – well, yes, this steel frame structure did go up in six days, but I think it was a bit of a stunt, and the […]

A recent survey says that Nairobi has some of the highest hotel room rates in the world.  Customers in Lagos and Luanda complain about the “crazy” prices charged there.  Hotel rates in Cape Town and Johannesburg soared by almost 50 per cent in the 12 months to August 2010. Why does the price of a […]