Cape Town welcomes the first African address of a much-anticipated hotel brand, Lagos Fashion Week is in full swing, and a safari hotel earns an environmental certification that is a first on the continent. Three signs of a market gaining venues, and raising its standards.
Cape Town: an EDITION hotel and a superyacht marina
On the V&A Waterfront, Marriott's EDITION brand, created with Ian Schrager, is opening its first address in Africa: 142 rooms on the Quay 7 site, facing the harbour, Table Mountain and the Atlantic. Daily Investor reports an opening on Tuesday 27 October, while the brand was still announcing a "late 2026" opening.
The hotel overlooks the future superyacht marina, in which the V&A Waterfront is investing R230 million. Its developers present it as the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, and expect it to draw clients who stay in port for weeks, even months.
For luxury houses, Cape Town confirms its status as a showcase: an international clientele with very high spending power, concentrated in a single district.
Daily Investor: the opening at the V&A Waterfront · InsideFlyer: EDITION's first African address · EWN: the superyacht marina
Lagos Fashion Week: an edition in the heat
Lagos Fashion Week runs until 1 November, in a city sweltering under an El Niño heatwave. Even before the official runway opened, Orange Culture and Sisiano had presented their collections. Nigerian label Andrea Iyamah, for its part, celebrated its fifteenth anniversary with a show at a resort a few hours from the city.
These off-schedule shows, in carefully chosen venues, show that Nigerian designers now master the staging of their brands, a key skill for winning over buyers and department stores.
OkayAfrica: Lagos Fashion Week 2026 behind the scenes
Hoedspruit: Africa's first verified net-zero hotel
On the edge of Kruger Park, the Radisson Safari Hotel Hoedspruit (138 rooms) has become the first hotel in Africa whose decarbonisation pathway is verified as net zero, by TÜV Rheinland. It is the group's tenth property to earn the label, out of a target of one hundred by 2030.
In safari hospitality, environmental proof is becoming a selling point in its own right, much like traceability in jewellery.
Hospitality ON: the first verified net-zero hotel (in French) · Skift: what the label changes
In brief
- The Saxon, the late Douw Steyn's former Johannesburg home, was named Africa's Leading Luxury Boutique Hotel at the World Travel Awards Africa 2026, and its Nelson Mandela Platinum Suite Africa's Leading Hotel Suite. Time Out · CEOWORLD
Our take
New hotels, new marinas, off-site shows: the places where luxury clients meet are multiplying in Africa. For an international brand, each is a potential location for a pop-up store that tests the market before settling in. Let's talk about your project.