14 minute read
Hotel at the heart of tourism dream in Comoros
Historic hotel Le Coelacanthe is a landmark of Comoros past, but is also key to the Indian Ocean archipelago's future as it sets an admirable example in a country looking to tourism to revitalise its economy. Mark Edwards finds out more about owner Amin Salim's expansion plans during his stay.
Le Coelacanthe hotel in Grande Comore, the largest island in the Comoros archipelago, can’t compete with the prehistoric heritage of the mysterious fish it is named after – fossils of coelacanths have been discovered dating back around 65 million years and the enormous eight-finned creature was long thought extinct until one was caught alive off the Comoros coast in 1987 with more finds following – but its origins do go deep into the islands’ storied past.
It was opened in Grande Comore’s capital, Moroni, in 1967, becoming one of the islands’ first ever hotels. Its owners were the internal assembly that governed Comoros, though the archipelago was at that time still a part of France. Independence did not come until 1975 with three of the islands – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli – opting for autonomous rule while Mayotte abstained and remains to this day a French overseas department.
Priceless location
The beach-side hotel was designed as an attractive place for the government to house visiting delegates and entertain guests. Its rooms, terrace bar and outdoor swimming pool are built over a hectare of land that rubs up against the black volcanic rock fringing the Comoros coast and which provides such a stark, beautiful contrast with the many white sand beaches here.
However, the early years of independence were beset with instability and unrest. Between 1975 and the late 1990s the country had five coups with regime overhauls meaning Le Coelacanthe was mothballed for long periods and soon fell into disrepair.
By 1995, the hotel was bought by a Comorian family, who have retained ownership to this day driven by a desire to return the hotel to its former glories, re-establish its role at the heart of Moroni’s community and play a part in galvanising the islands’ tourism industry.
That drive has increased in intensity under current manager Amin Salim. Born in Paris, he learned to speak English and Arabic while at school in Cairo, where his Comorian parents worked at the British Consul. He returned to Paris to do his military service and remained to launch a business importing kitchen accessories from China for sale in France. He also fell in love with a university student called Wuridat, who had come to the French capital to study after growing up in Moroni.
In 2003 the couple got married in Comoros. Marriages in the almost exclusively Muslim country are big deals that sweep up entire towns and villages in their day-long celebrations. It is the groom’s family that funds these no expense-spared events while the bride contributes the estate of the family home.
Wuridat, it turned out, was the daughter of the Le Coelacanthe owners and the newlyweds soon moved into their wedding gift with plans to build their future together in Comoros.
Renovation
While Wuridat worked as a teacher in Moroni, Amin set about the restoration of the landmark hotel. There was much to be done. “You would not believe the state it was in when we took over,” he tells me.
Still, Amin had a vision to turn Le Coelacanthe into the kind of luxury resort Comoros dearly needed.
While the archipelago has a multitude of natural attractions – tropical weather, paradisal beaches, volcanic peaks, unique wildlife and pristine coral reefs – to draw international tourists, upscale accommodation options to house them are limited.
Amin knew the hotel already had a lot going for it. Its location is priceless with open views over the Indian Ocean – which is close enough for the sound of the surf to soundtrack your sleep at night – while still being in the heart of Moroni with its bustling souk just a short walk away. Then there is the 25-metre outdoor swimming pool. Amin and Wuridat both learned to swim here as have many young Moronians over the years.
Swimming pool
While I am enjoying breakfast one morning on the hotel’s terrace between pool and ocean, Wuridat tells me that despite Comoros being a country of islands and fishing from small, vulnerable wooden boats the leading way to earn a living, learning to swim is not a priority here. However, most days during my stay the pool is busy with local families making use of the swimming day-passes the hotel offers. One early morning I find the pool packed with the members of a local swim team in training for an upcoming competition abroad.
Amin ensures the biggest pool on the archipelago is well maintained for both athletes and guests. It is piped full of soft salt water straight from the ocean and every Monday it is emptied by hand – an all-day task for one diligent young employee and a bucket – before the tiles are scrubbed clean and more ocean water is let in for a new week.
Amin has targeted much of his development of the hotel around the centrepiece of the pool. Work is ongoing to convert the former bar and indoor dining area into a wellness spa and beauty parlour, offering, in tandem with some leisurely lengths of the pool, a great way for guests to unwind.
A new thatched roof bar and lounge area has been built between the pool and the ocean. There’s plenty of cosy cushioned seating to enjoy sundowners with friends, but pride of place is given to the raised DJ booth, which is mission control of the legendary Le Coelacanthe club nights. Every Friday and Saturday, the hotel hosts parties that have transformed the nightclub scene in Grande Comore, bringing people from across the island and beyond to celebrate the weekend.
“Friday nights we get around 400 people. On Saturday it is between 200 and 300,” Amin says. So many clubbers that they seek out space around the pool and even spill onto the terrace’s higher tier above the spa-to-be. It makes for an electric atmosphere with dancing into the early hours fuelled by an eclectic music set-list that takes in Afrobeats, amapiano, reggae, hip-hop and even – a welcome surprise to this visiting Brit – UK drill rap. Amin and his team illuminate the event with LED lights wrapped around the resort’s towering palm trees with the luminance of the famous night sky in Comoros doing the rest. The Saturday night I am there, a perfect full moon hangs in the dark plum sky and I understand why the Arab seafaring traders in the 15th century gave the islands the name “Kamar” or “moon”.
Music nights
The music nights at Le Coelacanthe mean a lot to Amin. He might be called on to do the early school run as a father now, but much like the long-winged bats that soar as dark descends in Moroni, he is by nature a creature of the night. A regular on the clubbing scene in Paris, when Amin settled in Comoros, he wanted to foster a community here that embraced the world of modern dance music. Drawing on his musical connections in Paris, he has brought some major acts from the diaspora –including French Comorian rappers Rohff and Soprano – to play in Moroni. The cultural exchange also goes the other way with Amin organising gigs abroad for Comorian acts with the dates often the first time the artists have performed outside of their little-known island 290 km off the eastern coast of Africa.
A prime example of Amin’s musical mentoring is Salim Djaffar, now better known as DJ Limsa. In 2019, Amin organised a competition to find the best DJ on the islands with the winner getting residency at the Coelacanthe dance parties he was about to launch.
Djaffar was just 21 at the time and had to borrow the US$ 20 for the boat ride from his native Anjouan – the trip was his first time off the island – to take part in the competition. Still, as soon as he started playing, Amin’s decision was made. He was struck by Djaffar’s mixing dexterity and his feel for a wide range of music. “The way he puts the sounds together is incredible,” he tells me. “He has become famous here for using all kinds of genres in his sets.”
Word spread fast on the talents of the newly christened DJ Limsa – the Arabic word for beauty seeming apt for the baby-faced Djaffar. Once he started helming the Le Coelacanthe nights, new clubbers and other DJs began turning up to see him in action. The talented drummer and dancer was a natural who didn’t seem phased by the established international acts Amin would sometimes bring in to share the bill. Soon clubs on the mainland were calling and DJ Limsa was booked for gigs in Tanzania – including Dar es Salaam’s Havoc nightclub – and Mozambique. Amin accompanied him and the hotelier maintains a fatherly sense of care for his protégé. When the three of us meet to nurse afternoon drinks in the shade of the hotel bar, Amin teases his DJ that he has to keep an eye on him “because the girls like him too much”. DJ Limsa looks the part with sports chunky gold chains hip-hop-style around his neck and wrists. They were apparently given to him for free by a local jewellery store, happy to have the publicity of their products endorsed by someone of his celebrity status.
Amin’s role in DJ Limsa’s vaulting career trajectory is proof that his vision for the Le Coelacanthe’s success is anything but a selfish endeavour. “I am happy to be here in my country creating something for the people,” he tells me. DJ Limsa is just one of the 42-strong team Amin has put together to maximise the hotel’s operations. All staff appear invested in the vision, whether it’s housekeeping leaving fresh jasmine flowers and rose petals to scent your room, chefs creating incredible dishes from scratch with locally caught seafood and fresh produce and the drivers and guides that can get guests to attractions across Grande Comore such as 2,361-metrehigh volcanic peak Mount Karthala, the beach paradise of Mitsamiouli and mystical Lac Salé.
Team leader
Amin, a self-confessed “people person”, is in his element working with such a large team and on Saturday I see him effortlessly network through the crowds at the Le Coelacanthe club night. He tells me Comorians are “good people” – I certainly find them very welcoming while walking around bustling Moroni – but they can be hesitant to make the most of themselves. He is there, he says, to give them a push in the right direction and show them what is possible.
Self-starters such as Amin are just what Comoros needs, according to Nadjati Soidiki, the CEO of the National Agency on the Promotion of Investments (ANPI). “We have to be creative,” she says. The government body was set up in 2008 to promote investment in the country and aims to improve the business climate here for local entrepreneurs. Its work has gained traction in recent years with President Azali Assoumani coming to power in 2019 on a promise to stimulate economic growth.
Soidiki agrees to an interview at ANPI’s head offices in downtown Moroni where she tells me the agency is prioritising infrastructure and tourism on the islands.
The two often work together. On an earlier trip to the eye-rubbingly beautiful yet deserted beaches of Mitsamiouli, my driver and I appreciate a stretch of newly tarmacked road north of the airport – in marked contrast to the single carriageway road which weaves its weathered way south to Moroni and triggers some ‘creative’ overtaking from impatient motorists. The new road was built for construction firms involved in the building of a new resort around the picturesque Galawa beach.
Investors have blown hot and cold on the project over the years, but Soidiki tells me international hotel brand Marriott is now attached with work on what would be the country’s first five-star-resort scheduled to be completed by the end of next year.
Soidiki says international investment is at its highest ever levels in Comoros with around $4bn successfully raised to finance the country’s development plan at a conference in Paris in 2019. The public-private projects vary from the setting up of two foreign private banks, through major road improvements to solar plants in Anjouan and Moheli.
The foreign investors have been enticed by a series of incentives introduced in 2007 then enhanced in 2021. These include no custom duties for a company’s first five to 15 years of operation, free transfer of capital and remunerations and complimentary legal representation in case of conflict.
Soidiki believes this new investment will provide an exponential boost in tourism here. “We want 200,000 tourists each year here by 2030,” she says. “At the moment we entertain around 40,000 who want a new experience. We have many of the same advantages as Zanzibar so it’s not unreasonable to target its levels of visitors.”
Adding value
There are signs that Comoros is making room for a new influx of visitors at the islands’ only international airport located around 20km north of Moroni. Soidiki says: “Five years ago, there was only one international airline – Kenya Airways – but now we have Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines and Air Tanzania.
“Currently we are in discussions with Emirates about organising flights here and extending the airport. Work is already happening on a smaller scale.”
The ANPI has also set about ensuring domestic companies get more than just a sniff of the financial returns from the “perfume islands’” biggest export, ylang ylang flowers, which scent many of the biggest sellers of the billion-dollar global perfume industry, including the iconic Chanel N°5.
The agency has been helping local farmers add value to their crop with processing plants built on the plantations and the resulting ylang and vanilla essential oils and cosmetics sold under a new ‘Made in Comoros’ brand.
“We have programmes in place to help to transform their product,” says Soidiki. “Last year we went to Paris with 10 local managers to meet L’Oreal and other big parfumiers to conclude contracts. We are assisting 200 companies in the sector and each are getting in the region of US$ 50,000 to help develop their product. We must be the incubators for these businesses.”
Quality tourism
Soidiki proudly shows me a trial batch of the ‘Made in Comoros’ products, all in branded, luxury packaging. It is clear they are aiming at the luxury market.”
“Most people think Madagascar when you say vanilla, but ours is better. It is organically grown, and we want to be considered as country that supports good-quality vanilla.”
The exclusive ‘Made in Comoros’ vanilla and ylang ylang products will be a part of the quality tourism package Soidiki believes the country will soon offer. Getting those first international chain hotels here will bring it all a step closer. “If we have one or two big hotels on the islands it will be a huge boost. More families will come and that will in turn create more businesses for smaller family-run lodges here,” Soidiki says.
This is all music to Amin’s ears. He does not see that the possible arrival of major hotel companies in Comoros will overshadow his ventures, but rather he, like Soidiki, believes it will bring in more tourists who will appreciate what he is doing to revitalise Le Coelacanthe. To add to the hotel’s accommodation options of six beachside en-suite rooms, work is near completion on two new studio flats with a kitchenette for guests after longer stays as well as a larger apartment with one double bed and a three-tiered bunk to suit a family.
So just like its namesake fossil fish that proved reports of its death had been greatly exaggerated, you can’t write off Le Coelacanthe hotel. It leads by example in Comoros and hopes the country on the cusp of a tourism transformation.
More information on the hotel can be found @lecoelacanthemoroni on Instagram.
Follow DJ Limsa @limsa_dit_le_pro
For details on the work of ANPI, visit investcomoros.net
