The UAE-based Rotana Hotel Management Corporation is set to enter Tanzania next year through its newly built 30 floor Five Star hotel in the commercial city of Dar es Salaam.

Rotana, the leading hotel management company in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe, stakes its expansion on the African hospitality market.

The 254-key property in Tanzania’s leading commercial city will include 191 luxurious hotel rooms and suites and 63 serviced apartments spread across 24 floors.

The new Rotana property will be part of the landmark development in Dar es Salaam, a 65,000 square meters project, composed of the Five Star Hotel, Class “A” Offices, Retail and Parking Facilities.

In Tanzania, the Rotana brand is currently looking for its business name of the newly built hotel to be published later. Rotana Chain envisages owning 100 tourist hotels by 2020, the company said.

The $32 million hotel building in Dar es Salaam will also accommodate shopping malls and business offices. The planned Rotana hotel building is a joint venture property owned by the Tanzania-based Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation and the CRJE Estate Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of the China Railway Jianchang Engineering Company.

Rotana Hotel Management President Omer Kaddouri was quoted saying that the company is looking for global expansion strategy to increase its presence in a range of destinations, but also to allow reinforcement of its position as one of the leaders in the hospitality market in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Eastern Europe.

Hyatt Regency Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel and Southern Sun Hotel are the leading tourist hotels with international status, located at the Dar es Salaam Central Business District (CBD).

Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Prof. Jumanne Maghembe said Tanzania needs more hotels to cater for increasing number of tourists, estimated to reach 2.1 million by end of this year.

Prof. Maghembe said his ministry is currently grading hotels from Five to One Stars, an exercise meant to enhance quality of visitor service delivery.

Tanzania is facing shortage of over 30,000 hotel beds to accommodate the expansive demand in the hospitality sector. Only 38,000 hotel beds are currently available against the country demand for 70,000 beds, data from the Ministry of Tourism shows.

Professor Maghembe said Tanzania needs the services provided to be improved as well. The Hotels Association of Tanzania (HAT) has identified a huge skills gap as main challenges that had set back development of the hotel and hospitality sector.

The Association said in its recent report that Tanzania is also facing a large skills gap in the hotel and tourist service sector, a move that seriously cripples the provision of quality services and value for money.