SPECIAL FEATURE The
SPECIAL FEATURE The North West is becoming the conference destination of choice Research and training in tourism give the province a competitive edge. It used to be Sandton and Cape Town. Now it’s Sun City and Cape Town. The venues for the prestigious Investment Forum, that is. Held twice a year, the Investment Forum brings together South Africa’s top investment officers and portfolio managers. Securing this conference is feather in the cap of Sun City, and the North West. Even when a conference was held in Cape Town, as the Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics was in December 2017, the committee organising the conference was led by a North Wester, Professor Markus Bottcher! Another big event for the events industry in the North West province was the announcement that the SAFTAS, the South African Film and Television Awards, would also be held for the first time at Sun City in 2017. Sun International’s recent investment in its conference facilities at Sun City involved upgrades, expansion and investment in more environmentally friendly technologies. Venues available for hire range from a 12-seater Council Room to the Superbowl which can accommodate 6 000, and just about everything in between. No fewer than five types of accommodation support the conference and events side of things at Sun City. There are two five-star hotels (The Palace of the Lost City and the Cascades hotel), the four-star Soho hotel and Casino, the Cabanas hotel (three-star) and the Sun Vacation Club, a self-catering option. The Sun City resort adjacent to the Pilanesberg National Park and Game Reserve is the province’s biggest and best-known conference venue but Tourism North West, the province’s tourism agency, lists on its website a range of venues from small guesthouses with conference facilities in towns such as Rustenburg and Brits to lodges on the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. In the provincial capital, Mahikeng, there are several options: among them are the Mmbatho Palms Hotel Casino Convention Resort, which is part of the Peermont group, which has hotels and casinos in six of South Africa’s provinces. The Mmabatho Palms offers eight gaming tables and slot machines. Gaming is controlled in South Africa and licences are restricted to certain operators. The Gambling Board falls under the provincial Department of Economy and Enterprise Development and it has approved 262 Limited Payout Machines and six new bingo operations. North West’s other casinos are at Sun City and the Morula Casino and Hotel at Mabopane (both run by Sun International) and Klerksdorp (Rio Hotel Casino and Convention Resort), another Peermont property. NORTH WEST BUSINESS 2018 16
SPECIAL FEATURE Mahikeng also hosts the Protea Hotel and the Mmbatho Convention Centre (the main auditorium of which can seat 3 000 people). The Hotel School can accommodate up to 200 people. Most of the luxury lodges in the province can accommodate conferences, albeit on a smaller scale. Tourism training and research The North West Parks and Tourism Board is unique in South Africa in that it is the only provincial government entity that runs a hotel school. The Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (IHTM) has two campuses, one in Mahikeng and one at Ga-Runkuwa outside Pretoria. The courses offered are approved by the Council for Higher Education and accredited with the relevant sector authority, THETA. Another institution that gives the North West province additional weight when it comes to the tourism sector is the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the North West University, where Tourism Management is a popular course and the professors and researchers are at the top of their profession. Three courses are on offer for prospective students: • BComm Tourism Management • BCom Tourism and Recreation Science • BA Tourism Management (Mahikeng). Prof Melville Saayman is often quoted in the national media when tourism issues are discussed, the result of a number of research papers and documents produced by units within the university department. The establishment of a specialised research unit on tourism came about in the 1980s. Several name changes later, and with the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF), TREES (Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society) came into existence as a research unit in 2015. Apart from published research, which makes decision-making for business and government a good deal better, the unit supports post-graduate studies in the field of tourism. TREES aims to extend its links to the international tourism research community. Strategies Three tourism strategies (Culture and Heritage; Events and an over-arching regional strategy) inform what the Premier of North West has called the Arts, 17 NORTH WEST BUSINESS 2018
