Egypt and Nigeria are ranked first and second in a survey of African countries with the highest number of new hotel investments on the continent, a new report said.   

The W-Hospitality Group said for its '2023 Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Africa' report that it recorded data from 45 international and regional hotel chains, reporting their pipeline activity for which they have signed deals in Africa.    

The company - which provides advisory services to the hotel, tourism and leisure industries - collated data from 54 countries in Africa, including the Indian Ocean islands.     

The outcome shows that Egypt leads with the most hotel rooms under development followed by Nigeria, the report said.    

"It’s interesting that whilst the top two countries, Egypt and Nigeria, are both facing serious economic challenges, all the same they are seeing considerable deal signing activity," the W-Hospitality Group said in its 15th edition of its annual report.

Egypt's economy has been severely strained over the last year, with the Egyptian pound plummeting, foreign cash running out, and inflation rising to multi-year highs.   

In Nigeria, the situation is almost similar after the government's removal of a fuel subsidy and foreign exchange controls which sent the naira to a record low against the dollar and sent inflation to an 18-year high.     

The report shows Egypt tops the ranking of its hotel chain development pipeline list with nearly 25,000 rooms in 103 hotels, more than three times the number of rooms in second-placed Nigeria with 6,772 rooms in 42 hotels.    

"With continued signing activity (26 hotels with about 8,000 rooms in 2002) Egypt now accounts for fully 30 per cent of the total pipeline. That’s almost one third of the total, in (just) one country," the report said.    

Egypt has nearly three times the number of rooms compared to third-place Morocco. Ethiopia is placed fourth, Kenya fifth and South Africa eighth on the list.   

The signing spree in Egypt was led by Accor, Marriott International, IHG and the Hilton. Four Seasons, Radisson Hotel Group, TUI BLUE and TIME were also among the list but with much fewer hotels rooms under development. 

"It’s easy to be negative about some of the countries of Africa, especially when one considers the macro-level data," the report said. 

"But at the micro-level... there continues to be many opportunities for the hotel chains and their owners to exploit. That’s why we at W Hospitality Group continue to be optimistic about the future growth of the hotel industry in Africa."

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)