African nations have already begun to tap into global financial markets. Domestic tax and savings also offer solutions
Power outages and the lack of roads, railways, and ports have long been a frustrating feature of business in Africa, hindering home grown entrepreneur and foreign investor alike.
The Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) 2014, which took place in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia from 29th Sep. to 1st Oct. has provided the more than 500 participants who gathered from all over Africa from speed networking to in depth discussions on topics that matter to the hotel and tourism industry throughout the continent. Some of these topics included: what’s Africa’s future beyond growth?, what are the elements in creating the legislative framework for supporting the industry?, the Africa Hotel Investors’ cheat sheet – structuring the deal to mitigate the risk and architecture and design: looking at case studies of best practice. A range of other topics were also presented and debated by various high-caliber people from the industry both within and outside of Africa, too. But the discussion on conserving Africa’s tourism assets was a topic close to the heart of Matthew Weihs, the managing director of Bench Events, the organizing company. The first day of the forum has also hosted a debate on ‘focus on Ethiopia’, in which key personalities of the industry in Ethiopia participated to answer questions ranging from legislative issues to availability of finance.
Marriott International, which has just become one of the largest hotel groups in the continent after its acquisition of the South African based Protea Hotel Group on April this year, said in its effort to keep the hotel’s global standard, it plans to take local employees abroad for training.
