Africa Hotel Investment Forum (ahif) Podcast

Rick Taylor, the Founder of Business Tourism Company spoke to us about his organisation as one specialising in destination development, branding and tourism marketing strategies in emerging markets.  We focus on some of the work they have done in Rwanda enabling them to embrace the potential of MICE as a way to diversify their tourism products and look forward to the work in Ethiopia. 

In this podcast, we speak to Cyril Jacob, Managing Director at Ascentis, an engineering and project management organisation. We explore the similarities between the work he’s done in Asia and Africa; what the current challenges are for his organisation in the market and we look forward to his session on Developing Hotel Projects at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum on 24th September 2019 at Sheraton Addis, Ethiopia

This podcast with Nicolas looks at the changing role of media in Africa.  We discuss the investment into the sector and the impact this is having on local media, discuss the impact this will have and explore the role of media portraying the continent.  We also discussed the APO/AHIF partnership and what this will look to achieve – not least bringing interesting new speakers to the conference such as Amadou Gallo Fall, Vice President of National Basketball Association (NBA) and President of the Basketball Africa League (BAL)

In this podcast, we explore more about the CityBlue Hotels concepts and look at what plans it has as an African brand. Explore the challenges for the brand and the opportunities that come from being a regional player. Finally, we discuss Jameel’s coming session at the African Hotel Investment Forum and look at their needs as a regional brand and the types of deals they are considering. 

In this podcast, we talk to Fabio Nava, Vice President of Capital Markets, JLL (Hotels and Hospitality) and Wayne Godwin, Head of Hotel Advisory in Sub-Saharan Africa from JLL who, as part of their survey into the current investment sentiments, are producing an independent report on the current state of debt financing and hotel lending across Africa. We discussed how commercial and DFI banks view financing, requirements for banks, cross border lending, portfolio, and single asset lending requirements, tax incentives and mezzanine funding options.

In this Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) podcast, we speak to the Founder of Stuart & Partners, James Stuart about his work in the African hospitality market. Working closely with local independent hoteliers and helping them develop their own brand we explore why the African market is so important for him, the comparisons to this continent to his work previously in Asia and how he expects the African market to develop.

In this podcast I talk to Thomas Emanuel, Director of STR, looking at the African hotel performance data from Q1 2019.  We also look at the pipeline data and discuss the markets that are looking strong across the continent.

This Africa Hotel Investment Forum podcast speaks to Trevor Ward, Owner and Managing Director of W Hospitality Group about the recent publication of the 2019 Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa. I asked Trevor about the findings of the report – what it tells us about branded development across Africa – which countries are leading and what it tells us about the key international and regional brands strategies

In this podcast, we talk to Panos Loupasis the Vice President of Development for Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. Panos covers Africa, the Middle East and Eurasia for development so we explore how the brand looks to develop geographically. The podcast also explores the plans for the company and what products work for these markets.  Finally, at the AHIC conference, Panos was presenting the Ramada Encore product at the 3-minute pitch session so he outlines this brand and why it is good for the Middle East and African markets. 

In the first podcast of AHIF 2019, we speak to Daniel Silke, Director of Political Futures Consultancy, before he presents his keynote session at the AHIF Regional Briefing in Cape Town on April 24th. Daniel has been a keynote speaker of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum previously and will present on the Headwinds and Tailwinds of the African economy at the briefing.  In this podcast we discuss whether the slower global growth will affect Africa, understand more about which regions he expects will sustain high levels of growth and explore the South African market with elections looming, power and water shortages is it just doom and gloom? 

In this podcast, with Maria Zarraluqui, the Vice President of Global Development for Melia Hotels International, we talked about the recent successes of Melia in the MENA region and the plans for the development of their brands in key markets.

Erwan Garnier, Director, Radisson Hotel Group talks about the operator's growth plans in Francophone Africa, why it has such an important significance to their overall 5 year plans and the specific challenges faced when doing developments in Francophone countries.

A new addition to the Bench Events family to drive the company’s ambitions in Africa and the Middle East. Jean Perrochon brings with him valuable insight having worked closely with the investment community in the city of London and spent over 20 years of his life in Côte d'Ivoire.

In this podcast, Thomas Emanuel, Director of Business Development at STR, gives a quick update on the African market. He presents some of the recent findings shared at the AHIF event in Kenya and then, with the recent launch of the FIHA – Forum de l’Investissement Hôtelier Africain, digs deeper into some of the Francophone markets and why they are at an exciting stage of development. 

In this podcast, we speak to Hon. Najib Balala, EGH, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife, Government of Kenya. He explains how the government is supporting tourism and hospitality investments in Kenya. 

In this podcast, we speak to our new sponsors Solarus Sunpower’s Managing Director for Sub Saharan Africa, René Laks. Solarus Sunpower are supporting the AHIF debate on Efficient Building Investment and we asked René what, to date, have been the successes in the hospitality sector and the goals for the business. During the SPACE Seminar, we shall be exploring the practicalities of investing into solutions like solar power and the expected payback time as well – René explains some of the challenges and misconceptions behind these issues.

Daniel Silke, Director of Political Futures Consultancy and AHIF’s Keynote speaker this year is always special to listen to and, in this podcast, we explore how the current world economic situation is influencing Africa. This podcast explores how Africa is responding to the current trade wars globally through to the effects of Chinese economic slowdown. Is Africa showing resilience or is it being battered by the headwinds?

Amos Wekesa, Founder and CEO of Great Lakes Safaris spoke to us about his business and the goals for it.  As a true entrepreneur of the tourism industry what he felt the potential is for the leisure market in Africa and how he, as an influencer, can now do to promote further investment into the sector and to support Uganda’s recovery as a destination. 

In this podcast, we talked to Bani Haddad, Founder and Managing Director of Aleph Hospitality about his journey to setting up his 3-year-old business and why he has concentrated his efforts into the African market. We also asked Bani to talk us through all the different types of management models open to owners and to explain why the 3rd party operator model is such a potentially good one for the African market.

Nick Van Marken, former global head of hospitality for Deloitte, is one of the hotel investment industries most well-known faces. He is currently doing independent work across Africa and, in this podcast, we asked him about what has been keeping him busy since retiring and what is driving his interest in Africa. Nick is moderating a session on Growing the African Brand at AHIF and we asked him why the recent Onomo deal is an important stepping stone for the African market. And, with him interviewing both CEO’s of Hilton and AccorHotels at AHIF – we asked for a sneak preview into what he’ll be asking them.