North Africa Drives 23% Surge in Hotel Developments Across the Continent

With Africa continuing its march as a magnet for the world’s tourists, the 2025 Hotel Development Pipeline Report, the definitive study of international hospitality projects across Africa, revealed development activity has been growing impressively in North Africa, which saw a 23% year-on-year increase, compared to a 6% increase in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

The report, which looks at international hospitality development projects in Africa, showed that overall activity is up 13.3% as there are 577 hotels and resorts, with 104,444 rooms, in the development pipeline. Over the past five years, the hotel development pipeline has grown at an annualized rate of 4% in SSA, 12% in North Africa and 7% overall.

W Hospitality Group, who compiled the study, said that Egypt continues to lead with 143 hotels and 33,926 rooms in the pipeline. Second to that is Morocco with 8,579 rooms in 58 hotels. Despite its clear leadership in the absolute pipeline numbers, Egypt has fewer than 50% of rooms under construction, a significantly lower proportion than second-placed Morocco, with over 72%.

Notably also in the top 10 is Nigeria with 7, 320 rooms in development and Ethiopia and Cape Verde both with over 5,000 rooms in the pipeline. Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia have over 4,000 rooms in development and Tanzania and Ghana have over 3,000. According to the report, international hotel chains have deals signed in 42 of Africa’s 54 countries. %. Of the top 10 countries, Ethiopia has the highest ratio of rooms “on site”, followed by Morocco and Ghana. Cape Verde, Nigeria and Tanzania have some of the lowest percentages.

“However, ‘under construction’ does not necessarily mean that there is activity and progress towards completion and opening–many of the sites in Nigeria and Ghana, for example, have been closed for several years, with hardly a hard hat in sight,” the report reads.

“Despite the various trials that the continent faces, the fact that hotel chains signed 125 new deals last year, with 21,000 rooms, is evidence that opportunities for further development abound,” Trevor Ward, Managing Director of W Hospitality Group, said in a statement. “According to the Global Cities Institute, by the year 2100, 10 of the world’s 16 largest cities will be in Africa, with all but one of them (Cairo) in sub-Saharan Africa. So, one might say that development activity in Africa has barely scratched the surface.”