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Votes In Italy And Austria Crucial To Future Of Europe; Cuba Set To Bury Longtime Leader; Chapecoense Fans Honor Fallen Football Heroes; At Least 9 People Died In California Warehouse Fire; Civilians Flee Aleppo Battle; Africa's Hotel Industry; Marriot International's Big Move To Africa. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired December 04, 2016 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[02:00:00] CYRIL VANIER, CNN ANCHOR: Preceded by demonstrations like these, polling opens in Italy and Austria in two votes, that could significantly impact Europe's political landscape.

A farewell for Fidel, crowds gather in Cuba to hold a memorial for the controversial leader.

Plus, the horrors of Aleppo, CNN speaks with people who escaped the fighting in the ravaged city.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Cyril Vanier live from Atlanta, CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Two crucial votes going on right now could have major political and economic implications for Europe. Austria could elect Norbert Hofer. He would become the first far-right head of state in the European Union. And in Italy, the future of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi now depends on a constitutional referendum. Both of those votes will test the rise of populism across Europe and could help candidates who are anti-immigration and sceptical of European integration.

Let's focus on Italy first, as the voting begins there, CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman has the story from Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sunday morning, the times will be going to the polls to cast their vote in a constitutional referendum, where they will be given the choice to either reject or accept modifications to 47 of the 139 articles of Italy's 1948 Constitution.

Basically, it's all about cutting down the powers and the size of the Italian senate, basically making it a much smaller body instead of 315 members it'll go down to a 100, and they will be appointed, and though have very little in the way of decision-making power. The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says, "This is a good way to streamline a very cumbersome political process." But his critics say that this really poses the danger of giving dictatorial powers, or rather, too much power to whoever is in the position of Prime Minister. Many people harking back to the days of Mussolini, who was one of the reasons why the cumbersome political system exists here in the first place.

The problem is, of course, Matteo Renzi has said, that if Italians reject these constitutional changes, he will resign. So, many of his opponents have turned this simply into a popularity contest for Matteo Renzi, he's the 41-year-old Prime Minister who has been in power for the last two and a half years. He came to power promising to get the Italian economy, which hasn't really moved since the late 1990's, moving again. It has moved from negative growth to very anaemic of progress, or rather, positive growth, but for many Italians that's simply not enough. And then there's the whole matter of Italian banks. Their worry is that if this vote is rejected, there will be a period of instability and you have eight Italian banks that are basically on the brink of bankruptcy - political stability could bring them down and could bring to power those who want to get Italy out of the Euro, and are very, to say the least, Euro-sceptics.

So, it isn't quite Brexit, but there is quite a lot at play in this referendum. I'm Ben Wedemen, CNN, reporting from Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: And while that vote is happening in Italy, voters in Austria are also going to hit the polls. Left of center candidate, Alexander Van der Bellen is the former leader of the Green Party. He won the election in May by a very thin margin about 31,000 votes. But a re- run was ordered because of voting irregularities. He's a big supporter of the E.U., and he says that his opponent Norbert Hofer wants to take Austria out of the Union. Mr. Hofer originally did support a vote on this issue but now says that he just wants to reform the Union rather than leave it. Hofer represents the Anti-Immigration Freedom Party and has run an anti-establishment campaign.

The last election showed a sharp divide in Austria, geographical divide. Supporters of Van der Bellen came mostly from the West areas in the north and from the Capital Vienna; supporters of Hofer are found in Eastern and Southern parts of the county for the most part.

[02:05:00] A formal funeral for a long-time Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, will take place soon in Santiago. The ceremony is invitation- only, so most Cuban said their farewells on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of people were chanting "Yo soy Fidel", in the revolutionary square. Cuban President Raul Castro thanked the crowed who came out to celebrate his brother's life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAUL CASTRO, NEW PRESIDENT OF CUBA (through translator): Once again, through the impressive reaction of the Cuban children and young people, who affirm their willingness to be faithful successors of the ideals of the revolutions leader, in the name of our people, of the party, the state, the government, and the families, I reiterate my deepest appreciation for the innumerable displays of affection and respect to Fidel, his ideas and his work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Castro's ashes will be buried in the same cemetery as Jose Marti, another revolutionary leader and national icon.

Fans of Brazil's Chapecoense football club, gathered in the pouring rain on Saturday to pay a tearful tribute to team members killed in Monday's plane crash. The tragedy took place on Columbia, where the team was headed for a major tournament. 19 players and 19 team staff were along the 71 people who died. Thousands of fans turned out the club's home-stadium in Chapeco to watch as the team's victim received military honor-guard.

At least nine people are dead after a horrific fire in California; it happened at a warehouse in Oakland on Saturday. Officials fear the death toll could rise sharply. The blaze began as dozens of people were at the warehouse for a music event, and the only way out were a makeshift stairway as well as windows. The warehouse contained artist studios, but officials say it wasn't permitted for residences. Last month, the housing department notified property owners of violations for several hazardous trash and debris items.

And the fighting continues between government troops and rebel forces in Aleppo in Syria. Backed by airstrikes and artillery, regime forces continue to advance in rebel-held districts. Reports say that they have now regained over half the area that was once controlled by rebels in Eastern Aleppo.

Civilians, fleeing that battle are often caught in the middle, facing dangers from both sides. Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen filed this report from a government controlled village south of Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the Syrian government continues to push its offensive in and around the Aleppo area, we've been hearing about the tens of thousands of people who have already been displaced, and many people wonder, where are these people going? Well, some of them are going right here.

We're inside a former cotton factory that's disused and is now being used as a place for many of these displaced people to go. Now, a lot of these folks here, describe harrowing experiences over the past couple of days as they were trapped inside the eastern districts of Aleppo that, of course, are under-sieged by the Syrian military, and many of them say, that in the past couple of days, they haven't had very much in the way of food, of water, of course, many of them very traumatized and very weak as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SYRIAN CIVILIAN: We were afraid that we would starve to death. We were also scared because heavy bombs were falling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, SYRIAN CIVILIAN: I wanted to leave with my kids 15 days ago, but the rebels shot at me and said, "Hey you, bastard! Do you want to join the regime?"

PLEITGEN: Now, if you look in here, you can see how some of these people have been living since they were able to get out of the Eastern Districts of Aleppo. You can see some off the mattresses there, we always have to stress that over the past couple of days - of course, it's December right now, the weather here has been very, very bad. And so, that's something that, of course, has additionally made life very difficult for some of the folks here.

And if you look around, we can see just how many children are among those who also haven't brought here to the shelter for displaced people. Again, many of them in very bad condition, many of them, of course, very traumatized, but many of them also weak. One of the things (INAUDIBLE) that they are getting, is a warm meal for the very first time in a long time. You can see here, some of the groups here, are trying to hand out some bread, also some salad as well, just to make sure that these people are able to subsist over the next couple of days as, of course, they wait and they hope that maybe they'll be able to return back to their houses as, of course, at this point in time, the government offensive is still very much going on. You have also been hearing a lot of fighting in and around the Aleppo area. Fred Pleitgen, CNN Jibrin, Syria.

VANIER: Alright then, before we wrap up the show, we also want to bring you a weather update now. So, our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here on set with us for that and an intense drought, Derek, persists across the Amazon basin and much of Brazil with little relief in sights.

[20:09:54] DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, it's - just put it in to perspective, over the years from 2012 to 2015, South-eastern Brazil lost 6.1 centimetres of rain per year. Now, that doesn't sound like a lot, but if you equate that entire volume over that region, that is equivalent to 56 trillion litres of water that was lost in that three-year time span. So, you can imagine the drought that persists in that area. Take a look at the graphic and you'll see the on-going drought that is plaguing much of the Amazon basin, which by the way, is about 40 percent of the entire continent of South America, 7.5 square kilometres - 7.5 million square kilometres. That is the Amazon tributaries that really affects from the Amazon River.

And you can see those areas that really are just in severe drought at this moment in time, specifically across much of Brazil. In fact, what you're looking at here is a rainfall deficit map. So, you're looking at the cumulative precipitation, kind of an anomaly for the month of October heading in to November.

The bottom line here is anywhere you see that dark shading of red, means we are severely under a normal rainfall amount. So, you can imagine just the cumulative effect that this has on agriculture, the river basins, the tributaries, that feed across the Amazon basin there, and you could see the satellite loop does show a few areas of thunderstorms. We are now working our way in to the wet season, but were coming off - our dry season for this part of Brazil in South America, and it was extremely dry, and it's been extremely dry for the past several years. I gave you that statistics about 56 trillion litres of water lost from 2012 to 2013, that impacted, by the way, the temperatures as well, extremely warm, where you don't get the rainfall and cloud cover. By the way, this is all very much characteristic of a La Nina weather pattern, so we would expect to see the warm and very dry condition across much of Northern South America.

I want to end with this, because is a really interesting photo taken from an Astronaut on the International Space Station about 400 kilometres above Earth, and we'll have the director take this full screen, because I got to get a little bit of background on this. The astronaut see this view every 90 minutes, 16 sunsets and sunrises each day. What you were looking at there is the different layers of the Earth's atmosphere - that thin layer of blue, representing that in a troposphere, where our weather occurs, is that orange layer that you see in the image as well. And that just gives you an idea of just how fragile our Earth's environment actually is.

VANIER: Derek Van Dam, always enjoy it.

VAN DAM: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

VANIER: Yeah. Do stay tuned. Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Cyril Vanier. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:00] ZAIN ASHER, CNN MARKETPLACE AFRICA HOST: Welcome to MARKETPLACE AFRICA. We cover the biggest economic trends impacting the continent. This week, we are focused on Africa's hotel industry, a growing number of international hotel brands are checking into the continent. Walk with me over here, so we can explain the reason behind the sudden interest.

According to a report from W. Hospitality Group, the number of hotel rooms in Africa soared, and when I say soared, I mean, soared from just under 35,000 in 2012 to more than 64,000. Look at this steep rise, 64,000 in 2016. That 90 percent dramatic increase is partly thanks to a growing demand for accommodation by foreign investors.

Let's take a look at the specifics now, countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Egypt, and Morocco, are adding thousands of new hotel rooms today. In their inventory, you can see Nigeria alone tops the list, they added more than 10,000 rooms right now in development, and that's because they have 61 new hotels in the pipeline.

A country further down the list, is Rwanda. It is one of the fastest growing economies in East Africa, and now, the world's largest hotel group is seizing on that potential.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN MONEY AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Rwanda is on the rise, making a new name for itself after the 1994 genocide, threatened to destroy the country beyond repair. 22 years later, it's breaking through, and it's getting a major vote of confidence from one of hospitality's biggest brands.

In October, Marriott opened its first hotel in Rwanda, and the company CEO was there to mark the grand opening.

ARNE SORENSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL: We want to be here and grow as Rwanda grows. It's sort of an open-for- business sign, if you will, but the strength of the Rwanda economy and its promises are the very key reason why we're here.

ALEX KYRIAKIDIS, PRESIDENT OF MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL: This is the first Marriott Hotel to open in Sub- Saharan Africa, and this is huge for us.

GIOKOS: Like many businesses, Marriott is paying attention to fast- growing economies throughout the continent.

KYRIAKIDIS: You're looking at a country where the median age is 25. By 2050, if you look at the United Nations projection, one in four people in our planet will be from Africa. So, when you look at that growth, when you look at that potential, Africa for us is a huge growth platform, and we are very excited to be the biggest operator, the biggest pipeline creating the jobs in the travel and tourism industry.

GIOKOS: Rwandans are celebrating the land mark hotel in Kigali, for the tangible progress it represents.

FRANCIS GATARE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE RWANDA DEVELOPMENT BOARD: It's since 2000, that there has been a deliberate implementation of a clear vision that is leading our country to where it is today. And the very early on decision was made - or realization was made that the single most valuable natural resources that we have, is our people.

GIOKOS: It is those very people that the country is continuing to invest in with projects like Akilah Institute for Women. The institute opened in 2010 and has partnered with Marriott to help staff the new Kigali location.

ALINE KABANDA, RWANDA COUNTRY DIRECTOR AKILAH INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN: The approach of Akilah and right from the beginning with our very first program, which was hospitality management, was getting an understanding from the private sector about the specific skills that they needed, and then making sure that we design a curriculum that actually mirrors these needs.

GIOKOS: To get more women in the workplace, the Akilah center created a pipeline to companies like Marriott for their graduates.

SORENSON: I think as of today, we have 33 women from the Akilah girls school working at this hotel. And one of the great treats for me to be here is to see those faces, and see the pride they take in their work.

GIOKOS: For woman like Emmanuela, it's an opportunity they wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

EMMANUELLA, AKILAH INSTITUTE GRADUATE: I was able to compete among of the 18 ladies who graduated in 2012. I would say that, yeah, Akilah helped me and it gave me confidence for personal and professional skills.

LYDIA, AKILAH INSTITUTE GRADUATE: Without Akilah, I'm telling you, I couldn't read that books where I don't even think, hear, and think out of the box. But now, it helps me to think a lot and think even for tomorrow.

GIOKOS: Marriott, isn't the only hotel company trying to expand the investments in Africa. Kigali's newly built convention centre recently hosted many of the industry's top professionals at the Africa Hotel Investment Forum.

[02:20:05] DAVID TARSH, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR TARSH CONSULTING: The thing about a hotel or hotels for a developing economy, is that they are core infrastructure. If you want to attract money, you want to attract investors, people have to come and decide they like the place. But if you've got a lovely hotel, when those internationals come and they've got somewhere comfortable to stay, they're already feeling happier about the environment and you have more chance.

GIOKOS: Those responsible for Rwanda's upward trajectory say it's no surprise that they're seeing success.

GATARE: It is happening because of the sustained reforms that our country had been undertaking to create a conducive business environment and to create a very competitive marketplace.

GIOKOS: Big names like Marriott are betting a great deal on Rwanda's continued success. And more international brands are sure to follow as companies take notice of a new player on the world stage. Eleni Giokos, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Time for a quick break here on MARKETPLACE AFRICA.

Coming up next, you'll hear more from Marriott's CEO about how the company is expanding across the continent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: Welcome back, everybody. Marriott International has a really interesting history. It started in Washington, D.C. as a root beer stand in 1927 before venturing into the hotel space. In September 2016, Marriott acquired Starwood Hotel and Resorts to become the world's largest hotel chain. Today, it has nearly 6,000 properties in 120 countries worldwide. More than 200 of those properties are in the Middle East and Africa. Arne Sorenson is the CEO of Marriott.

My colleague Eleni Giokos sat down with him in Johannesburg to discuss the company's plans to make huge investments on the continent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SORENSON: We're about 115 hotels open in Africa today. We've got another 50 or 60 under construction. So, we'll be about 200 when the construction pipeline finishes. But what we see in a number of these markets is growth in travel. And obviously, we want to grow with the travel demand. And so, we're here.

GIOKOS: Let's take a look at your overall plan. You're looking to increase rooms on the continent to 37,000 by 2025. When I look at what (INAUDIBLE) is also doing, they're looking to increase rooms to around 23,000 by 2020. You've got competition that is growing. I mean, some would say a few years ago that you were late to come to the party when it came to Africa. How are you going to deal with a competitive environment?

SORENSON: Well, with every tool we have. We acquired Protea a few years back, because we were so weak in Sub-Saharan Aafrica and we wanted both the distribution that Protea had, and we really wanted the human expertise. We wanted people on the ground who knew how to do business here. We've obviously now acquired Starwood. They had some distribution in Africa as well. We've been moving now with the Marriott brand. We have 85 million members now between SPG and Marriott Rewards. We think we can deliver customers to our hotels in South Africa or in other markets in Africa, which should allow our owners to get better returns than if they did the deal with some of our competitors.

GIOKOS: Let's take a look at Kigali - sorry, Rwanda, an economy that is doing very well. Do you think that you'll be able to achieve the rise that you want?

SORENSON: I think so. Kigali is obviously -- Rwanda is an incredible story. Economy growing well, and it's a small market today. So, while we've just added a hotel and a competitor has just added a hotel, there are only four or five hotels in Kigali of significance. There need to be more.

GIOKOS: You don't think there will be overcapacity at the moment?

[02:25:00] SORENSON: Well, again, in any given month or given quarter, you can end up with a bit of a imbalance in supply or demand. But longer term, there is no threat of too much supply in Kigali. In fact, I suspect they need to have more supply growth in order to host conferences and in order to host the kind of tourism that they want to achieve.

GIOKOS: Kenya is another country that you're looking at. In Nairobi you've got big plans for the city as well. What are you planning to do there? Were you - were you expecting any big announcements coming through?

SORENSON: Well, we've got a number of projects we're work on. In Nairobi, particularly. Obviously, it's a - it's a bit of a hub for East Africa, big airport. A lot of people are coming in to Nairobi than to go out to other markets in East Africa, particularly. Economy is reasonably good. There's some complexities obviously there, and we want to make sure we work through those complexities there. It's also a sense of a security concerns and how do you - how do you make sure that that works. But with all of that, what we're seeing is organic growth. In other words, not acquiring companies, but one-off hotel -- new hotel development. And I think Nairobi will do well. GIOKOS: The other big thing is with Kenya is that some international players, international airlines aren't able to fly into the country and that could be a game changer once that's approved.

SORENSON: Yes. Airlines is a big factor across Africa. Still, it is too difficult to get around Africa except by coming to Joburg. We're going all the way to Europe, or going to Dubai. And so, you've got some hubs. Obviously, South Africa is a strong place from an airline perspective, but when you look at Addis or you look at Nairobi or you look at Dar or you look at a number of these other markets, the airlift is not as strong as it can be and probably should be, in order to drive the kind of visitation to that each of those countries wants to have.

GIOKOS: How big do you think Africa - your portfolio - your African portfolio will be to your overall company contribution of revenue and so forth?

SORENSON: Well, it's today -

GIOKOS: Is it going to irrelevant -

(CROSSTALK)

SORENSON: It's today, relatively small, and still, that's a function really of the size of the economy as much as anything else. Obviously, we've been late coming to Africa, but we've come to Africa in a big way over the last five years or so. And so now, we're already the biggest in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it's still only three to four percent of our business globally. The world is a big place, and the world is growing, too. So, over time, how do we see those changes? If Africa grows faster than the rest of the world, its - a portion of our business will grow faster, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: All right. That does it for us here on MARKETPLACE AFRICA. Be sure to check out our website and our Facebook page to see all of our stories and share your thoughts. I'm Zain Asher, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next week in the MARKETPLACE.

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