ADDIS ABABA
By Addis Getachew
Marriott and Protea, an international hotel chain, has announced plans to invest $200 million in hotel expansion in Africa.
"The [coming] year is a transformational year for Marriott's partnership with Africa," Marriott President and Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa Alex Kyriakidis told a Wednesday press conference held on the sidelines of the African Hotels Investment Forum (AHIF) in Addis Ababa.
"We believe in the future of Africa," he said. "Today, there are 120 operational hotels in Africa [with a total of] 5,000 rooms."
Kyriakidis said that by 2020, the number of Marriott hotels would increase to 150 in 18 countries.
He said new hotels would be opened in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa and in Rwanda's Kigali, along with Ghana, South Africa and in other countries.
The first new Marriott hotel, he said, would open in Ethiopia next year.
"We are going to recruit Ethiopians well before opening and [we are] going to send them to our platform of hotels in Africa for training and development and bring them back and place them in leadership positions," Kyriakidis explained.
He went on to say that some 10,000 Africans would be employed by the new raft of Marriott hotels.
"This is the kind of employment generation I'm talking about," he said. "As of 2015, one in four people in the world will be in Africa."
African hotel chain Protea was bought out by Marriott last year for an undisclosed amount.
This year's AHIF in Addis Ababa is being attended by representatives of international hoteliers, including Starwood, Accor, Rezidor Hotel groups, Sheraton, Hilton and Radisson Blu, among others.
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