The 25 floor hotel will feature the 216 room full service Renaissance Lagos Hotel and 44 room Marriott Executive Apartment offering extended stay apartments with space, ambience and the privacy of residential living. 

LAGOS, Nigeria, November 15, 2017/ -- Marriott International (NASDAQ: MAR) (www.Marriott.com) and Landmark Africa Group (www.LandmarkAfrica.com) today announced the signing of Renaissance Lagos Hotel and Marriott Executive Apartments. Slated to open in 2020, the hotels will be located within the Landmark Village precinct, a premier mixed-use, business, leisure and lifestyle development along the Atlantic Ocean waterfront in Victoria Island, the central business district of Lagos. 

Can the National Assembly make a law on an issue already decided by the Supreme Court? No, say senior lawyers. They argue that the Senate’s bid to empower a federal agency to regulate hotel operations and related businesses was contrary to a Supreme Court judgment on the matter. Legal experts have faulted the Senate’s bid to amend the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Act of 1992. The Bill for the amendment provides, among others, that the federal agency would be vested with regulatory powers over hotels and related businesses. But, senior lawyers have argued that passing the law with the provision would be in direct conflict with a Supreme Court verdict, which has settled the issue, and must, therefore, be rejected.

The background

NTDC’s functions include registering, classifying, grading and regulating all hotels, motels, hospitality and tourism enterprises, and tour operators. However, in 2003, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed the Hotel Licensing Law, which was amended in 2010, and gazetted on July 20, 2010. In 2009, Lagos published a public notice stating that registration of hotels and tourism related establishments in the state was the exclusive responsibility of its Ministry of Tourism.

There was, thus, a conflict between the Lagos law and the NTDC Act’s mandate. NTDC subsequently issued a public notice advising all operators of hotels and tourism companies to disregard the notice issued by Lagos. As a way of resolving the issue, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), on behalf of the Federal Government, filed an action at the Supreme Court against Attorney-General of Lagos State by way of originating summons. He challenged the validity of the laws enacted by the Lagos State House of Assembly.

What keep businesses ahead of others in a stiff and competitive market is innovation, meaning doing things in a different way.  Most Hotels nowadays are gradually inculcating the idea of fitness centres in their premises to meet the physical health needs of their clients, because it is assumed that health attract wealth. So next time you check into a hotel don’t forget to visit the gym section for your exercise. Fitness centres have become the new ‘gold' in the hospitality industry, with a recently published Hospitality Report Nigeria by Jumia Travel showing the gym as one of the most sought after amenities by customers booking a hotel stay.

The growing trend from home based fitness programmes to local fitness memberships now includes the need for travelers to keep fit even when on their trips, be it leisure or business. In this regard, most hotels have adopted to the trend and incorporated gym/fitness facilities in their properties, while those with existing ones have gone a notch higher to renovate in a bid to create a better impression.

As the head of customer service for Jumia Travel Nigeria, Omolara Adagunodo ascertains: “The percentage of our customers often enquiring the inclusion of a gym or fitness facility is overwhelmingly high. Some are concerned about keeping up with their workout routine while on the road, while others are purely on a wellness trip and, therefore, have a fitness facility as a priority. We have but to refer and recommend only hotels that have the capacity to meet their needs.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday dissolved the board of directors of Ikeja Hotels Plc and ordered a forensic investigation into the affairs of the hospitality and tourism company. Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN) is the interim chairman.

The apex capital market regulator said it sacked the board due to unresolved internal crisis involving some majority shareholders of Ikeja Hotels Plc, in apparent reference to the squabbles within the Ibru family, which holds the largest shareholdings in the company.

It’s time hospitality sector contributes more to the economy – Efa

As the call for the diversification of the Nigerian economy heightens, especially now that crude oil price keeps crashing everyday, BRIAN Efa, managing partner, Jonel Hospitality Consulting/Founder, Nigeria Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference, in this interview with OBINNA EMELIKE, explains how  the investment conference can help. Excerpt.

Why Nigeria Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference?

Over the years, I have followed the statistics released by United Nations World Tourism Organisation. For instance, according the UNWTO in 2013, total export earnings generated by international tourism in 2013 reached US$ 1.4 trillion. Then, I asked myself, what is the stake of Nigeria in all these, bearing in mind that the whole of African accounted for only 3 percent of this figure.
Also, I discovered that Nigeria has over 100 natural tourism sites with the capacity to generate revenue for each states of the federation if fully developed and marketed to Nigerians and international communities. These facts prompted these questions; why are they not developed? What are the challenges and why are people not interested in investing in the sector? So, I saw the need to bring together stakeholders at the Nigeria Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference (NHTIC) to a discourse to give answers to these questions. There was also the need to find out from the international community why they are not investing in the tourism and hospitality sector in Nigeria, so we extended this conference to the international community to also hear from them what the problems are.

The National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), Covenant University, Ota and Winigroup Ltd have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct capacity development trainings of over 100,000 staff working in Nigeria hotels to promote tourism in the country.
NIHOTOUR was set up by the federal government to oversee capacity development of workers in the hospitality industry in order to enhance the quality and efficiency of senior functionaries in the sector.