As the hospitality business in Ethiopia is booming, investors should invest in new hospitality colleges that can produce world class professionals and feed both the international brands coming into the country and the emerging local hotel brands, says an international hotel manager.
“I would advise investors to open hospitality colleges affiliated with an internationally recognized university or college in the field,” said Mrs. Hiwot Teferra, Acting general manager of Golden Tulip Addis Ababa.
“With the recent growth Ethiopia has been showing, all major international hotel brands are expected to have a representation in Ethiopia. These represented brands are expected to have more hotels within the same brand to increase cross-selling opportunities between different market segments,” says Mrs. Hiwot, who has been in the hospitality business for the past two decades in different international hotels, including the Sheraton Addis.
Currently there are 373 hotels in Ethiopian out of which 166 hotels are in Addis Ababa. From the 166, 7 are international branded hotels, including Golden Tulip Hotel Addis Ababa. The rest are local hotels.
As long as the country maintains its peace and stability, Mrs. Hiwot anticipates increasing number of both tourists and business travelers coming to Ethiopia.
Among the other factors she mentioned for the growing number of visitors to Ethiopia include, the recently launched electronic visa application, growing number of meetings and events such as, regional and continental meetings.
After entering the hospitality market of Ethiopia in July 2015, has been serving its customers featuring 90 rooms and suites, various outlets, meeting rooms and a café. It has created jobs for 183 permanent employees and a few temporary staff as well as trainees, according to Mrs. Hiwot.
Since the year 2001, she has been witnessing a steady growth in the service industry within Ethiopia.
“Ethiopia continues to being recognized as one of the world’s renowned tourist destinations,” according to Mrs. Hiwot.
In 2018, it was named the world’s coolest cities to visit by Forbes magazine and ranked among the top 10 African countries by Bloom Consulting.
Alongside all these attributes, Addis Ababa, the capital, is the third largest diplomatic community, next to Washington DC and Geneva. The city is also ranked among the 10 largest markets for chain hotel development.
The major services of Golden Tulip Addis Ababa include:
- Spice Restaurant: the main dining restaurant, serves a variety of both local and international dishes.
- Grab and Go: offers a large selection of hot drinks, snacks and cakes.
- Lemon Bar & Grill is the perfect venue for sport lovers, offering great food and drinks, as well as a 165’’ screen TV.
- Havana Bar: is an exclusive, cozy, VIP bar and lounge.
Additionally, the five star rated hotel also offers a wide variety of meeting and conference facilities for up to 200 guests, as well as in-house laundry service, 24-hour room service, as well as outside catering service, according to Mrs. Hiwot.