subject: Kempinski To Focus On Africa Hotels [print this page] Kempinski, the luxury European hotel chain, has focused its attention on its expansion plans across Africa, according to the hotel groups companys Middle East and Africa President, Ulrich Eckhardt.
The group has recently opened a hotel in NDjamena in Chad, and a property in Accra, Ghana will be opening shortly to provide luxury accommodation for tourists taking Africa holidays in that region.
Construction work has already started on properties in Abuja and Lagos in Nigeria, and two Morocco hotels are also in the pipeline.
Mr Eckhardt said: We are heavily engaged in Africa and Africa is our main focus.
We also have interests in the Central African Republic, in Angola, in Cameroon. We have a project going in Rwanda; we are very actively involved in Namibia.
On the east coast moving forwards, Madagascar, Mauritius, we are looking at all the islands.
Established in 1897, Kempinski is Europes oldest luxury hotel group. The company now operates more than 60 luxury resorts, business and spa hotels across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa in major cities including London, Geneva, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Moscow, Prague, Istanbul, Budapest, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Delhi, Beijing, and Bangkok.
Kempinski properties are renowned for providing five-star service and unique offerings to global travellers, whether they are visiting for business or leisure.
Mr Eckhardt explained that Kempinski is keen to offer Africa holidays that differ from existing hotel operators on the continent.
We want to have a clear differentiated brand awareness for Kempinski in Africa from all the other brands, There are of course the old timers, Hilton and InterContinental, but theyre all out, on the way out, and Kempinski is the new kid on the block, Eckhardt said.
It gives us a great advantage. We are completely and literally virgin to the old ailments of our competitors because theyre regarded as being part of the exploiting machine of the past so that gives us a lot of advantages.
The regional president added that many other hotel groups are looking to develop Africa hotels and competition is fierce.
Everybody else is there and everybody else is becoming really aware, when you look at statistics and data its unbelievable, everybody seems to have woken up to Africa. Its not easy to build a hotel there and its not easy to operate, if you want to do a good job, he added.
Several new Kempinski properties are scheduled to open in Europe next year in destinations including Vienna, Jurmala, Moscow, Tbilisi and Belgrade.
