Several major hotel brands have announced their entry into the African safari industry in pursuit of new markets and experiences – but not without challenges.
Speaking during the recent Future Hospitality Summit, Jugal Khushalani, Senior Director of Development for Sub-Saharan Africa at Marriott International, said Marriott has considered the lodge market “for quite some time” as a way to offer its 203 million global loyalty programme members “unique and different experiences”.
Marriott, which opened its JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya in 2023, is slated to open six safari properties across East Africa by 2027. Marriott also intends adding a property in the Kruger National Park to its portfolio in 2026, according to a press statement.
The hotel group is focused on creating circuits that combine multiple destinations across its portfolio. “A traveller planning a trip for 20 days can spend five nights on beautiful beaches in the likes of Zanzibar, Mauritius and the Seychelles then see the Big Five in the Kruger National Park, the Maasai Mara or the Serengeti and also experience gorilla trekking in places like Uganda and Rwanda,” Khushalani said.
But entering the market, traditionally dominated by smaller, local players, requires different skills and can come with challenges.
“Managing a hotel or a resort within a city or an island is something we’ve been doing for years but lodges are still relatively new,” Khushalani said, adding that the right partners are critical.
He said there has been an overall dependency on certain demand generators that haven’t changed over the years. “Marriott can generate a lot of direct bookings. We can open up segments and markets that generally would not have visited these safari camps if it weren’t for having an international brand on board.”
As new markets like China and India start to show more interest in safari products, he said this “comfort level” is important.
Working with tour operators
Terra Nova Co-Founder Paul Gardiner said a challenge Accor encountered when it took over Mantis Collection, which was started by his family, was reliance on traditional tour operators in the South African market.
“The big brand has got an amazing loyalty programme. They arrived here thinking they can just plug us in and they’re going to fill our lodges. Unfortunately, that’s not the case because people don’t just go to a lodge when they come to South Africa. They go to Cape Town, then they go to Winelands, then they have to get an internal flight to Port Elizabeth to go to Founders Lodge and perhaps they want to bolt on Mauritius,” said Gardiner.
For younger, tech savvy travellers, this might be easy to plan but other travellers and bigger groups would likely go through a travel agent who works through a tour operator, he said.
Accor acquired its own tour operator in Giltedge, run by Gardiner’s brother Murray, to create a concierge desk to help solve the issue.
“It took a long time to figure out that they couldn’t just rely on their database,” said Gardiner.
While many brands are focused on entering the lodge market in Africa, Gardiner and his teams are looking further afield. In Bahrain, he said they’re working to introduce wildlife from the region along with modified 4x4 vehicles, waterholes and feeding stations. Coupled with the area’s marine life, they’re working to create an immersive safari experience outside of Africa, he said.
