Bench Events, the organiser of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), which is the premier hotel investment conference in Africa, is launching a sister event, named the Forum de l’Investissement Hôtelier Africain (FIHA), to focus more precisely on North and West Africa. Proceedings will be bilingual, with presentations and panel discussions led in French with simultaneous translation to English. The first edition of FIHA will take place in Marrakesh from 7-8 February 2019.
In Africa, hotel investment is booming. Hotels are core infrastructure because they are essential to attracting tourists and business people who come with foreign currency to spend and invest. As the economic environment in Africa has become increasingly less risky in the past two or three decades and because the number of hotels per head of population is a tiny fraction of what it is in highly-developed western economies, the growth in hotel development across Africa has consistently outstripped general economic growth – which in many African countries is currently higher than much of the rest of the world.
Morocco makes four strong arguments to attract investors. First, the country has a stable political and economic climate. Second, it is strategically-located, within a three-hour flight of the major European capitals and seven hours from Dubai, Moscow and New York. Third, its laws are investor-friendly, with no restriction on land ownership or repatriation of profits and fourth, it has robust infrastructure, including a major hub airport in Casablanca.
Outside Africa, Bench Events runs premium hospitality investment and aviation conferences across Europe, the Middle East and South America. Market-leading, annual conferences include the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC), now in its 14th year, The Saudi Hotel Investment Conference (SHIC), The Russia Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (RHTIC) and the Latin American Hotel & Tourism Investment Conferences (SAHIC).