BERT Fol, Radisson Hotel Group’s Regional Director for Africa, says the brand wants to increase its hotel operations in Nigeria and other African countries from 100 to 150 hotels by 2025.
He also stated that the company’s presence and operations in Nigeria would be doubled in that time frame.
Nigeria is one of the company’s four focus countries on the continent, according to him, and Radisson intends to aggressively expand its portfolio in the West African country he stated this during an interview in Lagos.
Fol, who was just named the hotel company’s new regional director for Africa, will be in charge of the company’s operations in English-speaking African countries.
He said, “It is interesting to see that business is coming back to Nigeria. The hotel business has gone through a very difficult time over the last two years and has managed to perform so well. Thanks to the excellent partners that we have in Nigeria and to our excellent, dedicated, and passionate team. Africa is a tremendous focus for us within the company and I’m sure that is not a surprise to anyone in the room.
“We know a lot about Radisson history in Africa. We now have 100 hotels in Africa either in operations or in the pipeline. These are confirmed signed deals. And it’s our ambition and our aim to increase that to 150 hotels both in operations and pipeline by 2025.
“And specifically, looking at Nigeria, this is a tremendous one of four focus countries within Africa, and again that’s hardly surprising given this is the largest economy on the African continent. So, it’s our aim within Nigeria to more than double our portfolio and our presence in the country by 2025.”
To assist potential conversions, the company plans to grow each of its six brands in Nigeria, including the newest Radisson Individuals brand, as part of its expansion strategy.
“These ambitious expansion plans and the success of our hotels in Nigeria-even through difficult periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic, where our operational hotels in Nigeria continued to be leaders in the market, not only in the country but in the continent-is only possible because of our wonderful partners and our passionate teams,” Fol added.
He stated that four sites are now under construction in various parts of the country, with plans to launch in 2025, and that the company is searching for more partners.
Adding that despite the fact that the pandemic hampered hotel growth, Radisson had seen a considerably faster expansion in Africa in the last five to six years.
The regional director explained, “We already have in the pipeline four new hotels that we plan to open within the next three years and we are constantly looking for new partners and new hotels we will build to manage, going forward in the future. We are never tired of talking about how much we want to expand within the continent and also within Nigeria.
On how prepared his hotel brand is for competition, he said, “Radisson Blu is prepared for competitors, and I will expand that answer by saying the global brand hotel industry is extremely competitive. And one of the things that is quite surprising in Nigeria is that it is not so competitive in terms of the global international brands, and I think that is going to change in the future and it is already changing.
“In most of the markets we work in, there is severe competition. And one of the key things we will continue to do in Radisson is to differentiate ourselves from the companies in terms of our flexibility, delivering results for owners, and delivering excellent service for our guests. Whatever things hotels are trying to do, we believe we are doing a bit better and taking care of our people.”
