There is a new scramble for Africa. The battle is among international hotel groups trying to create a significant footprint on the continent, which is regarded (along with South America) as one of the last frontiers.

Andrew McLachlan, Carlson Rezidor VP of business development for Africa and Indian Ocean Islands, says the reasons for this breakthrough are: African politics have become more stable in the past 10 years; many African natural resources are untapped; and there have been new oil and gas finds recently, which are always followed by developments in the banking and telecoms sector. 
Carlson Rezidor Group is currently top of this future-facing pile, according to a recent W Hospitality survey, with the largest number of rooms (6 300) and hotels (30) under development in Africa. Its brand, Radisson Blu, leads all brands in the survey, with its Park Inn brand in third place after Hilton.
The group has put a lot of faith and investment into the continent, despite the chain’s late start with Radisson Blu Cape Town in 2000. The reason, McLachlan told Tourism Update, is: “We look for political stability manifest in a second round of democratic elections, GDP growth and quality airlift, which in itself is a good indicator of growth. We look at the economic community and build hotel ‘routes’ in a region. For example, in West Africa we service the demands of the region, building hotels in financial hubs even if they are not capital cities. We are more interested in cities than countries.”
The chain’s leading brand is the iconic full-service, upmarket Radisson Blu, which it often uses as a lead-in to a region. “Travellers need this type of hotel in areas where infrastructure and outsourcing opportunities are lacking. Radisson Blu is usually followed by our midscale Park Inn brand.”
Returning to the topic of airlift, McLachlan sees immense improvements in this area, with increased activity by SAA, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Asky, Emirates, and SN Brussels. This has created more demand for quality hotels and Carlson Rezidor is now a first mover into some of these markets, going where competitors might not, says Andrew.
Currently, the African strategy has two key markets: Nigeria and South Africa, in each of which it aims to have 15 hotels by 2020. It has plans too for five hotels each in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Ghana and Angola. Add to this at least one hotel apiece in Abidjan, Lomé, Ouagadougou, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Juba, Gaborone and Lilongwe.