Radisson Hotel Group has announced the signing of 16 new hotel deals across Africa during the last 12 months, doubling their original 2018 target.

The Group currently has 96 hotels and 20,000 rooms in operation and under development across 31 countries in Africa and is firmly on track to reach 130 hotels and 23,000 rooms by 2022.

To support and drive the rapid growth of its African portfolio, Radisson Hotel Group has reinforced its development team with the introduction of senior development professional Ramsay Rankoussi, Vice President, Development, Middle East, Turkey & French Speaking Africa.

Ramsay has been with Radisson Hotel Group for over 5 years, initially overseeing the growth of the company in the Middle East & Turkey and now leading the development activities across French Speaking Africa. He is supported by Erwan Garnier, Director and Development French & Portuguese Speaking Africa.

Together, they seek to accelerate the introduction of all Radisson brands in the region with a focus on key capital and economic cities.

Ramsay Rankoussi, Vice President, Development, Middle East, Turkey & French Speaking Africa said, "We have ambitious plans for this important market and it is imperative that we have the right resources in place to support our growth. This means communicating effectively with owners and investors, as well as providing first class levels of expertise as we establish long-term relationships with our business partners in this market. We are proud that each of our development team members fits this criterion for success.”

Andrew Mclachlan, Senior Vice President, Development, sub-Saharan Africa, Radisson Hotel Group said that the firm will continue to execute its five-year strategy with the  expanded team, creating scaled hotel growth in key cities and resort locations across Africa during 2019.

"With economic headwinds in some African markets, we have identified opportunities to exploit our vast knowledge and experience in converting unbranded, underperforming hotels or underperforming office or apartment buildings and reposition them to the right brand and market segment within the Radisson Hotel Group brand portfolio. In addition, we are not ignoring the smaller cities and larger towns across Africa where we’ve identified potential to penetrate the market with either our midscale Park Inn by Radisson brand or upscale Radisson.”

Radisson Hotel Group plans to open a further five hotels across Africa in 2019, pushing the African portfolio to more than 50 hotels in operation before year-end.

These openings include the first Radisson Blu hotel in Casablanca, which is the Group’s second hotel in Morocco, scheduled to open within the next six months, as well as their first hotel, and the countries first internationally branded hotel in Niger, with the opening of Radisson Blu Hotel Niamey in Q2 this year.

 "Our strategy will most certainly reinforce our presence in key markets across Africa as we continue to focus on delivering on our expanding pipeline,” concluded Mclachlan.

Agencies.