Cabo Verde is among the most attractive tourist markets in West Africa at a time when the continent is increasingly attracting tourism investment, according to an assessment released by Hospitality and Tourism International (HTI) Consulting.
The assessment, released during the African Property Investment (API) Summit, which took place on 2 and 3 October in Johannesburg, said that the main investment destinations in the hotel industry in West Africa are, besides Cabo Verde, Senegal, Benin and Ghana.
“Other markets offer opportunities, but the potential for security or political upheavals can hurt long-term performance and revenues,” Wayne Troughton told the conference. In the assessment other Portuguese-speaking countries such as Angola, Guinea Bissau or São Tomé and Príncipe were not even mentioned.
“We are following the investment of structured funds, predominantly from Europe and the Middle East, an increasing percentage of individuals with high liquidity from Europe, the Middle East and Africa itself, European, African and North American proprietary investors and family funds from the Middle East, the United Kingdom, Europe and South Africa,” said the head of HTI Consulting.
The most frequent investment opportunity, he said, are mid-range, 150-room city hotel located near business districts, conference centres and transportation platforms.
A Macau group, Macau Legend, expects to complete construction of a hotel and casino in Praia, Cabo Verde, by the end of 2020, according to information recently sent to investors.
The office building and infrastructure on the Santa Maria islet in Praia “will be completed by the end of 2019 and the new hotel and casino will be completed by the end of 2020,” following the introduction of some changes to the project to accommodate local geographical limitations.
David Chow, owner of the Macau Legend Group, in 2015 signed an agreement for the construction of the Gamboa/Santa Maria Island development with the Cape Verdean government.
Chow received a 25-year gambling license from the Cape Verdean Government, 15 of which on an exclusive basis on the island of Santiago, which cost Macau Legend subsidiary CV Entertainment Co. the equivalent of about 1.2 million of euros.
The promoter has also been granted a special license to exclusively operate online gambling across the country and the sports betting market for 10 years.
The number of tourists in Cabo Verde has been growing steadily, and in the first half of 2019 more than 2.45 million overnight stays were booked by foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%, according to the archipelago’s National Statistics Institute.
The average hotel occupancy rate in Cabo Verde was 60% in the first quarter and 49% in the second quarter, while the average stay was 5.8 and 6.1 nights respectively, according to the same data.
Cabo Verde welcomed more than 765,600 tourists in 2018, and the government has set a target of reaching 1 million tourists by 2021 through measures such as visa-free travel, incentives for private investment and improvements in maritime transport and flights between the country’s islands.
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