Hyatt plans to open 9 new hotels in Africa by 2020

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced today that nine additional Hyatt-branded hotels are expected to open in Africa by the end of 2020. The announcement focused on the first dual-branded Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels on the continent, the return of the Hyatt brand to Cairo, new Park Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels in Morocco, and Hyatt hotels in Algeria, Ethiopia, and Senegal.

According to Hyatt, East Africa remains a focus largely due to increasingly favourable business climate, increased tourism spend, relaxed visa rules, travel incentives, and a growing middle class. Data from UNWTO Tourism Highlights: 2018 Edition also show that international tourist arrivals in sub-Saharan Africa have grown by 5.8 percent from 2005 to 2017, which is well above the global average of 4.2 percent.

Of the brands expected nine hotels, five are market entries, they include:

• Ethiopia: Hyatt Regency, Addis Ababa (expected to open Q4 2018)
• Senegal: Hyatt Centric Dakar (expected to open in Q1 2019)
• Algeria: Hyatt Regency, Algiers Airport (expected to open in Q1 2019)
• Kenya: Hyatt Place Nairobi, Westlands (expected to open in 2020)
• Kenya: Hyatt House Nairobi, Westlands (expected to open in 2020)

While in others markets where they have an existing footprint, new Hyatt openings will include:

• Morocco: Park Hyatt Marrakech (expected to open in 2020) and Hyatt Regency Taghazout (expected to open in Q3 2019)
• Tanzania: Hyatt Regency Arusha (expected to open in mid-2019)
• Cairo: Hyatt Regency Cairo West (expected to open in 2020)

Speaking on the announcement, Takuya Aoyama, Hyatt’s vice president of development for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East said “Strengthening our existing hotel presence in the capitals of East Africa has given Hyatt a strong foundation to continue growing our brand footprint in the rest of the continent. As part of Hyatt’s long-term plan to expand in sub-Saharan Africa, we will continue to look for further opportunities across countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Namibia, Cameroon, Madagascar, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.