Limpopo Business 2018-19 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE The

SPECIAL FEATURE The Protea Hotel group has two hotels in the province. In the capital city of Polokwane, the Protea Hotel Landmark has 80 rooms and six conference venues. Just outside the city is the Protea Hotel Polokwane Ranch Resort where guests can walk with lions. The hotel is on a 1 000-hectare nature conservancy and specialises in catering for weddings. In Mokopane near the Waterberg mountains, the family-run The Park Hotel Mokopane has 125 rooms and can cater for up to 400 conference delegates. The three-star hotel recently added 25 self-catering units. The Fusion Boutique Hotel in the provincial capital offers five-star quality in 30 en-suite rooms and two exclusive suites. Sun International runs the Meropa Casino and Entertainment World near Polokwane. In the province’s northern regions at Thohoyandou, there is the Khoroni Hotel, Casino and Convention Resort. This is a Peermont venture and there is a three-star Peermont Metcourt Hotel in the complex. The Limpopo Gambling Board regulates the industry and grants licences. The Mopani district was recently granted two new bingo licences. The most recent casino licence was awarded to Peermont Global Resorts for the official launch and operation of the Thaba Moshate Casino, Hotel and Conference Centre in the Greater Tubatse Local Municipality. There are 237 limited-pay-out gambling machines in the province, and licences of one sort or another generate more than R50-million for the provincial government. Varied assets Limpopo Province has varied tourism assets that include the bare bushveld of the north, misty mountains in the central highlands, hot springs, a unique cycad forest, excellent golf courses, 70% of the Kruger National Park and numerous luxury private game reserves. Kruger, Mapungubwe and Marakele are all national parks and they are run by South African National Parks (SANParks). There are a further 53 provincial nature reserves managed by Limpopo Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET). They serve to promote tourism, develop the local economies and promote ecological conservation. Many of these reserves are communally owned but jointly managed by the province and communities. The combined land area of Limpopo’s national, provincial and private game and nature reserves is 3.6-million hectares. ANNUAL EVENTS Limpopo Marula Festival, Phalaborwa (February) Polokwane Show and Music Festival (March) Kiwifruit Festival, Magoebaskloof (April) Zion Christian Church gathering, Moria (Easter) Thabazimbi Tourism & Game Expo. Potato Festival, Vivo (May) Ellisras Bushveld Festival. Polokwane Arts Festival (June) Musina Show (July) Oppikoppi, music festival, Northam. Trout Festival, Haenertsburg (August) Magoebaskloof Spring Festival (September) Biltong Festival, Mokopane (October) Mapungubwe Arts and Cultural Festival, Polokwane (December) A new drive to promote home-stays is underway in the northern part of the province. Getting tourists to eat mopani worms and learn about local traditions and cultural practices would help to generate income for villages and hamlets otherwise outside of the mainstream economy. The provincial government has committed to enhancing the value of Limpopo’s two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Mapungubwe Heritage Site and Makapans Valley. This is also a priority programme in the National Tourism Sector Strategy. The Waterberg Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO protected site. In support of the arts and culture sector, a potential area of growth for tourism in Limpopo, a performance theatre is to be built in Polokwane. The Limpopo Tourism Agency is pursuing a multinational tourism strategy, with the Limpopo-Zambezi brand initiative one example of new approaches to marketing the province. LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2018/19 34

From golf to culture, Limpopo has it all INTERVIEW Nomasonto Ndlovu, the CEO of the Limpopo Tourism Agency, outlines the strategic thinking behind growing tourist numbers to South Africa’s northernmost province. Nomasonto Ndlovu What is the mandate of the Limpopo Tourism Agency? The core mandate is destination marketing, which includes increasing tourist arrivals, with an emphasis on domestic tourism. We provide strategic market intelligence and tourism information as well as market access support to tourism entrepreneurs. We focus on our seven strategic experience clusters, namely mega conservation, golf and game, special interest, family and recreation, hunting and safari, business as well as culture and heritage. How are the agency’s goals aligned with the Limpopo Development Plan? The Limpopo Development Plan has identified tourism as one of the key pillars of the province’s economic growth. Through our marketing initiatives, we want to create much-needed jobs. BIOGRAPHY Nomasonto Ndlovu has wide experience in brand marketing, communications and events in the private and public sector. She worked as Strategic Executive Director for the City of Tshwane before taking senior marketing positions in fields as varied as banking (Standard Bank) and fast-moving consumer goods (Unilever in South Africa and Kenya). In 2005 she joined KwaZulu- Natal’s tourism board and then worked as the global manager of business tourism at South African Tourism. Do you have particular priorities for the year ahead? We are focussing on domestic and SADC markets. We want to gain a better understanding of the travellers visiting friends and family, as we have the lion’s share of this market. We want to convert them into holiday-makers that contribute to increased spend in the hospitality sector through inspiring and affordable packages. We have specific initiatives that aim to raise brand awareness and destination profile in SADC markets. We will build on our recently launched Tour de Limpopo cycle race, which is aimed at showcasing the areas of Makgoebaskloof, Modjadjiskloof and Tzaneen in the Mopani region. We want to educate tour operators in other provinces of our product offerings and experiences. Are you planning to focus on a type of tourism? One of the differentiating factors about Limpopo is our people and diversity of our cultures – only in Limpopo will you encounter the Tshivenda, Sepedi and Xitsonga cultures. The other niche is business events (MICE). Limpopo has unique venues nestled in the bush, with varied capacity. How important are the Mapungubwe and Marula festivals? These two events remain very strategic for LTA. We are committed to assisting in building these properties into household events that attract not only locals, but national and SADC visitors. 35 LIMPOPO BUSINESS 2018/19