The Group General Manager of the Continental Hotels, Karl Hala, speaks about how the hotel is promoting tourism in Nigeria. Charles Ajunwa brings excerpts

World Tourism Day was observed recently, can you tell us how Continental Hotels have impacted the tourism ecosystem in Nigeria? 

Today, we are considered as the brand leader in Nigeria with the largest number of rooms in Abuja and Lagos. Going back over the last couple of years, we have scooped the recognition from our Nigerian institutions as being the leading brand and having the leading teams.

It involves a lot of people management, motivation, inspiration, guest satisfaction, service delivery. We have not only promoted the brand, but we have told a national story of transition and transformation. Abuja is evolving at a very remarkable pace. We just introduced our new Tower 2, Wing A deluxe rooms. It’s a step above our superior rooms and space. The balconies have been transitioned into space because working space is essential. Also, we upgraded the amenities, and the looks and feel have become more contemporary with the Nigerian touch. Our Convention Centre in Abuja, the Ladi Kwali, which we transitioned last September with new features within the lobby areas being marbled out, all the carpeting within all the convention rooms, air conditioning, walls, and so forth. Now, we’ve added partitioning and soundproofing. We successfully hosted the Bill Gates events here. With our upgraded facilities, organisers now have the trust and confidence to host international events in Abuja. It’s a big beginning, because we want to compete on the international platform. Not just locally, but we go internationally. It’s essential to go and actually present ourselves against unnamed competitors of other countries. At both Abuja and Lagos, we are welcoming personalities of global stature. From the Mayor of London, to Bill Gates, to our own Kamaru Usman and others. All chose Continental Hotels as their home in Nigeria.

But more importantly, I believe it’s the validation of both cities to be internationally recognised hubs. As you know, we have a commitment to excellence. We want to improve this service excellence, product excellence where we go, and others as well. So we have recruited new training managers in Abuja. Their primary task is to reinforce service culture and communication. The service culture of us being there is sort of distracted by whatever happens around. We need a level of this understanding that starts from the top because the waiters will always do wherever they’ve been told to. But the top has to understand how we approach the different service expectations from our clients. On the tech side, we are partnering with a top international tech company. We are deploying Wi-Fi 7.

That means you are connected to the cloud. Coming to our academy, it is moving forward. We now have reached a level that we can open in second quarter 2026. We are working with the Ministries of Labour and Education in this regard. I just saw the two ministers together with IOM officials, United Nations. They are there to see where and what the capacity is.

Bring us up to speed on the renovations in Abuja, and when you hope to finish? What’s your vision? 

The vision and objectivity is to set the landmark for Abuja. So that goes from the actual planning of the concept. How our clients sleep, how they contact businesses and how we can work the basics of the services, bars, outlets, and the relaxation as well. We play with 14 hectares and 600 rooms built into three towers. Tower 3 is now closed. We shall finish the redesign and the transformation of our first bulb of rooms in about 18 to 20 months. Whilst we have that working, we could not wait in Tower 2 because the superior rooms are there, but they do need an uplift. So we decided to uplift them as well into a new category that is deluxe. We just finished the first 100 rooms. It’s enlarged rooms with better tech, better amenities, better decor around. And the second part in Wing B is just starting now. By January or February 2026, we should have 200 deluxe, 100 premium and 100 standard rooms. The last 200 are in the making. In the meantime, we have already finalised the new gym which is high-tech. This is the technical gym. This is top of the line. That’s the latest work that comes through. We have all the recreation facilities from physical – Spa, wellness and recreation. Restaurants and bars are in the planning. The first one we’re going to do is the pool bar within the first quarter of next year. Landscaping is ongoing and you might see the impact. It’s cool. We have a second entrance, which we’re almost finished now. The main entrance to Tower 3, which we’re already going to use to go to the other areas. So, we also ease connectivity within the hotel and from the outside. In terms of security, we just installed another 140 CCTV cameras protecting all areas. All these are giving confidence to our clientele and institutions as we get more local and international visits. Internationally speaking, as you know, risk is very high on the agenda. So, safety has to be as well. 

Can you elaborate on some artisan businesses you are giving support to?

I listen around a lot. Somebody I know has got the tilapia farm, another one a goat farm and the organic farm where palm oil is coming from. But I know there’s a lot happening. To be honest, we also look at exports, because of the money. So, we want to jump into that and make sure that we get this export quality partially to remain with us.

What are you looking at in terms of patronage? 

You know we don’t give numbers.

But it’s not about numbers.

 We are changing the playing field because of the high demand we have experienced over the last couple of years, we are now turning into improving the level of services and accessibility because that’s what Nigeria is all about. And because of who we are here, there’s been a landmark since 2013, when it opened, and now, we want to take it to the next step. So, the patronage is good. Now we want to make it great. 

We’ve already experienced over the last eight to 12 months, more international business coming through, especially from the diplomatic community. We have had not just the Mayor of London, but we have had the Foreign Secretaries of the US, of the UK, the German President, Kamaru Usman and we have talked about more NFL players coming here. From the creative scene, I have to say, we are their popular place. Don’t forget, the creatives, whether these are the Rema, Burna Boys, whoever they are, they don’t come in here and name themselves. But they come with their US partners, producers, and others; they’re all with us as well. That’s the level we are going to and the take-up is good because it shows you that the diaspora Nigerians are coming back to invest, there’s confidence here in the country.