Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) Podcast

In this podcast, Kamil Abdul-Karim, MD of Pam Golding Hospitality, discusses the impact that the recent political changes in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa have had on hotel demand.   As a key advisory firm for the South Africa region Kamil has noted that almost immediately there has been a positive change and he's had to rework predictions immediately.  However, in this podcast we explore th...

Managing Director at W Hospitality, Trevor Ward, speaks with Bench Events UK MD Matthew Weihs giving an overview of the Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa Report which is in it's 9th year. Speaking on the importance of the report, Mr Ward touches on the benefit for investors as well as how the report takes into account future events that may not happen and the themes of 2016. This podcast...

Managing Director at W Hospitality, Trevor Ward, speaks with Bench Events UK MD Matthew Weihs giving an overview of the Hotel Chain Development Pipelines in Africa Report which is in it's 9th year. Speaking on the importance of the report, Mr Ward touches on the benefit for investors as well as how the report takes into account future events that may not happen and the themes of 2016. This podcast...

In this podcast Bench Events Managing Director, Matthew Weihs talks to Saleh Said, Director of Pennyroyal Gibraltar Limited. Discussing what is likely to be one of the biggest deals done in East Africa, they talk about the strategy behind and challenges faced the by development of the Zanzibar Amber Resort. This podcast is part of an official series supporting the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AH...

In this podcast Bench Events Managing Director, Matthew Weihs talks to Elie Younes, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of the Rezidor Hotel Group. Weeks before the Rezidor Hotel Group hosts the Africa Hotel Investment Forum in Kigali they speak about the Africa as an investment destination, the consumption and control of energy and the group's vision for Africa. This podcast is...

Jon Howell, Aviation Specialist at Bench events, recently met with Manish Shrivastava, Co-founder, Travel Commerce Solutions. Manish is a trainer for IATA and has over 15 years of travel industry experience. Travel Commerce Solutions are developing e-commerce solutions for the travel industry. They aim to assist airlines to achieve product differentiation and portfolio optimisation whilst elevatin...

Patrick Fitzgibbon, Senior Vice President, Development EMEA has a quick chat with Bench Events Managing Director Matthew Weihs ahead of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) 2016. This podcast is part of an official series supporting the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF). To attend, please visit www.africa-conference.com .

In this podcast Bench Events Managing Director, Matthew Weihs talks to Mark Martinovic, CEO at Hotel Spec, about the first ever cost benchmarking guide report for Africa. This podcast is part of an official series supporting the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF). To attend, please visit www.africa-conference.com .

In this podcast Bench Events Managing Director, Matthew Weihs talks to Mark Dunford, Vice President of Sub-Saharan Africa at JLL, about the upcoming Hotel Market Outlook reports published on the Bench Events website.   This podcast is part of an official series supporting the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF). To attend, please visit www.africa-conference.com.

During a recent trip to Cairo, Egypt, Jon Howell, Aviation development manager, gets some time with Ahmed Aly, CEO of Nile Air. Amongst other items discussed are fleet expansion plans, the opportunity that the African continent offers and the challenging market conditions that exist in the region. Jon can be reached via jon.howell@benchevents.com

Managing Director at W Hospitality, Trevor Ward, speaks with Bench Events UK MD Matthew Weihs on the eve before the release of the 8th hotel chain development pipeline report. Speaking on the findings within the report, Mr Ward goes on to give his views on the brands contributing to the report and African brands to watch. The pair go on to discuss Nigeria being at top of the country table, further...

Bench Events Event Coordinator, Joelle Mottier, talks with the Executive Director at the Tourism Development Corporation Of Boavista and Majo, Rui Santos, discussing foreign investment and the challenges faced by Cape Verde. Beginning with an overview of Cape Verde, the pair go on to talk about branded hotels and how Chinese investment of 250 million dollars impacts the tourism market. Mr Santos g...

Lamine Sebogo is Head of the Elephant Conservation program for the WWF. Sitting down with Bench Events CEO, Jonathan Worsley, at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) 2015 in Addis Ababa, the pair discuss the real facts about the elephant poaching crisis. Covering the poverty, global demand and money that is fuelling the trade, Mr Sebogo talks about how the hotel industry can stop the slaughter...

Hear more about the increased activity from Middle Eastern carriers and some successes from local carriers such as Ethiopian Airways, using Addis Ababa as a hub.  The growth of African middle class consumers has also given birth to low cost carriers such as FastJet as well as three other players in the region.  Jon can be reached via jon.howell@benchevents.com.   This podcast is part of an officia...

The focus moves quickly to the fast vs slow rise of low cost carriers in Africa and some of the institutional challenges that may be holding the low cost opportunity back.  What do African national carriers need to do with their routes, landing fees, fuel costs, etc to help build out a similar market to Europe, the US and Asia?  Hear Mario’s thoughts on these issues as well as how he defines Air D...

Bench Events UK MD Matthew Weihs talks to Jonathan Hubbard about how Africa may be the “next big story” as the world economy moves away from a period of difficulty. The demographic and economic story continues to evolve in Africa and Jonathan talks about how that will attract brands and financial support as supply increases in Africa. The conversation heads towards the long term view for instituti...

Ms Zeisler speaks on the rich wildlife in the region and the option for tourists to stay longer, impacting spending and lowering relative C02 emissions.  She also speaks on the some the work that needs to be done by the airline carriers to increase the flow of travellers into the region. From an investment perspective, Valentina highlights an aggregated fund that pools together a series of indepen...

From new operators in the marketplace to an increasing plethora of options for stakeholders at all levels in the ecosystem, this conversation covers the results of a survey aimed at helping investors navigate these factors. There is special focus on East Africa as well as ideal hotel sizes as relates to franchise models and management contracts.  Additionally, Mr Troughton speaks on the need for o...

In this brief discussion, Mr Murangwe speaks on his excitement for Rwanda’s progress, including several leisure products coming on to the market and the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) itself coming to Rwanda in 2016.  Currently 9.1% of Rwanda’s GDP comes from travel and tourism - however the MICE strategy outlined in this podcast details how they hope to increase that. The discussion also mo...

Playing devil’s advocate, Minister Mzembi shares what he thinks are the perceptions of external source markets on Africa, and how these can be turned into positives to help change the brand of the continent.   New developments in Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls airport will see an additional 8 billion arrivals into the country, an expansion which Minister Mzembi calls the biggest game changer for Zimbab...

Despite seeing an 18% increase for tourism in the Seychelles last year, he raises the following points:   Is that enough? Will that sustain Seychelles in the long term?   Recalling the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup song ‘This Is Africa’, Minister St. Ange says that this is a message that speaks clear to him, and hopes that it will help to bring Africa to the next level in unity.   In the podcas...

In particular he addresses the portrayal of Africa as one big country, entirely conflicted by problems of famine, corruption, poverty and instability.   Since gaining its Independence in 1990, Namibia has diversified the scope of what it has to offer, thus gaining momentum as a conference, filming and overall tourist destination.   The next step is to debunk the dated notions that currently exist...

Speaking at the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) Brand Africa Conference in Accra, 17 year-old social media guru, Rachel Markham sits for a quick chat with Matthew Weihs, Managing Director of Bench Events.   Her website, The Africa The Media Never Shows You intends to push and encourage Africans to join together in fighting back stereotypes and investing more into Africa.   Her ca...

She raises the positive effects of the coming together of different sectors to help communicate a renewed image of Africa.   Africa’s image is still shaped by negative factors, such as war, famine and instability, and so it is important for the entire continent to work together in portraying the positive realities that are often overlooked.   This podcast is part of an official series supporting t...

He marks the clear objectives that will position Africa more strongly and positively to the rest of the world, thus creating a new ‘brand’ entirely.   He emphasises that by key airlines such as Kenya Airways, South African Airlines and Rwandair are connecting Africa to the rest of the world, thus opening the door to investors and tourism, and for leaders to exchange culture and build new concepts...