Western Cape Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
ing destinations such as Knysna,
Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay.
CemAir offers scheduled flights to
Plettenberg Bay.
Several strategies are being
adopted to further improve the
province’s tourist offering and
increase numbers. These include
a service excellence programme
where a town’s residents are encouraged
to act as tourism ambassadors.
A pilot project was successfully
launched in Clanwilliam,
where everyone in the town,
including shop clerks and petrol
station attendants, joined in.
Work is being done on improving
the system of visa approvals
and on linking various sites associated
with the late President
Nelson Mandela. Halaal tourism
also holds tremendous potential.
One of the reasons that tourists
visit the Western Cape is the
quality of its beaches. The province
has 29 Blue Flag-accredited
beaches, an international quality
standard that covers 33 different
measures. Ten beaches in greater
Cape Town together with the likes
of Santos (Mossel Bay), Grotto
(Hermanus), Witsand (Hessequa)
and Wilderness (Eden) have made
the grade. A further five marinas
have qualified for the programme,
the local version of which is run
by the Wildlife and Environment
Society of South Africa.
Hotels and conferences
The capacity of the Cape Town
International Conference Centre
(CTICC) is being doubled. The
R832-million expansion will add
31 000m², including 10 000m² of
conference and exhibition space. CTICC East (the new section) will
connect to CTICC West via a tunnel (for services) and a skybridge
over the Heerengraght. The new section is expected to open in 2017,
and will line up along other new Foreshore buildings such as KPMG
Place and the Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital. The
South African Green Building Council has given the CTICC expansion
a Four-Star Green Building rating.
The Foreshore is at the heart of a series of new developments
that are set to have a major impact on the tourism industry. These
include the new Cruise Terminal and the adjacent Yacht Club, a hotel,
residential and commercial complex being developed by the Amdec
Group. This precinct is very close to the entrance to the CTICC and
will be linked to the Waterfront by the extension of the existing canal.
On the other (eastern) edge of the Foreshore, an a major development
is in the works which will include two Marriott hotels. In
the Cape Town CBD there are going to be 500 new rooms, courtesy
of two Tsogo Sun hotels, plus a smaller hotel in the De Waterkant
(Capital Mirage). Tsogo Sun already operates several hotels in greater
Cape Town, including three full-service hotels in the city centre, the
Cullinan, Southern Sun Waterfront and Southern Sun Cape Sun. The
other seven hotels cover five brands in the Tsogo Sun stable.
Elsewhere in the Western Cape, Tsogo Sun has hotels in Caledon,
Beaufort West, Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay.
109 WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017