"We plan to develop and operate multiple hotels across our portfolio of brands and market segments within each of these cities, increasing our presence in Cape Town and Johannesburg to at least 10 hotels per city and Durban to at least five hotels. With economic headwinds we have identified opportunities to exploit our vast knowledge and experience in converting unbranded, underperforming hotels or underperforming office or apartment buildings and reposition them to the right brand and market segment within the Radisson Hotel Group brand portfolio.
"In addition, we are not ignoring the smaller cities and larger towns across South Africa where we’ve identified potential to penetrate the market with either our midscale Park Inn by Radisson brand or upscale Radisson."
As part of the company’s recent rebranding to Radisson Hotel Group, a new brand architecture was introduced, leveraging the brand’s equity to drive awareness in the marketplace and increase marketing efficiency across its global portfolio.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, we aim to add 50 hotels, of which 65% of our future hotel supply will come from our newer brands, specifically Radisson, which is positioned in the full-service upscale segment, positioned between Radisson Blu in the upper upscale and Park Inn by Radisson in the upper midscale segments," said McLachlan. “In addition, we will selectively add a number of key Radisson Collection hotels and grow on the successful opening of RED Radisson in Cape Town in the lifestyle upscale segment of the market.”
With the increased demand in serviced apartments, the Radisson Hotel Groups' serviced apartment concepts are an extension of the Radisson Blu, Radisson and Park Inn by Radisson brands. These properties offer long-stay guests contemporary design, beautiful living areas and magnetic social spaces.
In a period of strong growth, the Radisson Hotel Group has doubled its African portfolio within the last four years, and year to date have signed seven more hotel deals and is scheduled to open at least three new hotels across the African continent before year end. This growth has spiked the group’s portfolio in Africa to almost 90 hotels (18,000+ rooms) in operation and under development across 30 countries.
The 2018 W Hospitality Pipeline Report ranked the group’s flagship brand, Radisson Blu, as the leading individual hotel brand with the largest number of hotels under construction in Africa. With 111 hotel brands active in Africa today, Radisson Blu leads the way in Africa with more hotels under development than any other hotel brand.
"Our strategy will reinforce our presence in South Africa as we continue to focus on delivering on our expanding pipeline," concluded McLachlan.
