Mauritius has the strongest hotel market
when compared with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC) report, ‘Hotels outlook: 2018-2022: South
Africa – Nigeria – Mauritius – Kenya – Tanzania’.
Since 2017, hotel occupancy has been
above 75% and this is expected to increase to 79,8% by 2022. Over the next five
years, the report predicts that total hotel revenue will increase from the
current €739 million (R13,2bn) in 2017 to €1 billion (R18bn) by 2022.
According to PwC, Mauritius’s key growth
area will be five-star hotels. “We expect guest nights for three- and four-star
hotels to be flat during the forecast period, as growth in the market will be
centred in five-star hotels.” Room revenue from the five-star sector is
projected to grow to €354 million (R6,3bn) by 2022.
The report also outlined expected hotel
openings: “Anantara Le Chaland Resort should open a 164-room beachfront hotel
in mid-2019. Marriott announced plans to introduce its Aloft brand in Port
Louis in 2022 through the conversion of an office building into a 150-room
hotel. A Park Inn by Radisson Mauritius has also been announced for 2020, and
Avani and Sheraton hotels are planned for 2021 and 2022, respectively.”
South African travellers increased by 7.0%
last year, helped by a stronger rand. This resulted in 112 129 SA travellers
in 2017.
