South African Business 2016 edition

OVERVIEW • Bidvest

OVERVIEW • Bidvest Travel and Aviation: Rennies Foreign Exchange, BidTravel, Harvey World Travel, Budget Car Rental, HRG Rennies Travel and BidAir Services • Cullinan Holdings: Thompsons, Hylton Ross Tours, Pentravel. • Tourvest: The group has companies dealing with many aspects of the tourist experience: tour operators and conference organisers, foreign exchange, retail (gift shops and duty-free shops) and hotels (African Hotels and Adventures) • The principal airline operators in South Africa are SAA, the alliance of British Airways, Comair, and Kulula, a low-cost airline. SAA has ties with SA Express and owns low-cost carrier Mango. SA Express and SA Airlink fly to smaller destinations in South Africa and Southern Africa. Key sectors Casinos are a popular part of many entertainment and accommodation complexes around the country, although relatively few licences are in operation. Private game reserves and golf resorts has been one of the fastest-growing markets in recent years. The Garden Route and the KwaZulu-Natal coastline are areas rich in golfing venues. St Francis Links is located between Plettenberg Bay and Port Elizabeth. With a spectacular course designed by Jack Nicklaus and wonderful views over the bay and nearby mountains, St Francis Links is routinely featured among Compleat Golfer’s Five Star Experience Awards. South Africa has been named as Golf Destination of the Year (Africa, Indian Ocean and Gulf States) by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators. Wine tourism is said to contribute indirectly more than R4.5- billion to the South African tourism sector (South African Wine Industry Information and Systems, SAWIS). According to Wine Tourism South Africa, a website and publishing concern that provides information about the wine industry, 43% of visitors to South Africa visit the Cape Winelands. The Industrial Development Corporation has committed to investing R2-billion in local resorts (and in the African hotel market). There are a number of unused or under-used facilities in South Africa that could be fixed up to cater to the many South Africans who currently don’t take holidays. An audit of possible properties is under- way. One suggestion is that former military bases could be converted into low-fee resorts. Other niche areas that are being explored include astrology and adventure tourism. The cruise-ship market has massive potential. Both Durban and Cape Town are considering building dedicated cruise-ship terminals in order to capture somewhat more than 0.5% of the world market that South Africa currently does. More than 15-million passengers travel on cruise ships globally every year. Hotels There is international interest in South Africa’s hotel industry but the sector is well developed with several large local groups operating in multiple locations. Radisson Blu and Hilton are among the international companies to have invested. A new brand is set to launch in 2016: Radisson Red, aimed at the Millenial market. Hilton International has recently acquired the Coral Hotel in Cape Town’s CBD. It also runs the Double Tree by Hilton in the same city and has hotels in Johannesburg and Durban. In 2012, Southern Sun relaunched itself as Tsogo Sun, the result of a merger with Gold Reef Resorts. Southern Sun remains as a brand for premier hotels in the group, which has a total 95 hotels and 15 casinos across Africa, the Middle East and the Seychelles. The new Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani complex will boast 734 rooms and nine restaurants when Tsogo Sun completes the R220-million project to amalgamate two previously separate hotels on Durban’s Golden Mile. The new group’s latest acquisition is The Grace in SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016 114

Rosebank, Johannesburg, renamed ‘54 on Bath’. The Beverly Hills in KwaZulu-Natal is the group’s other ultra-luxury hotel property. Other Tsogo Sun hotel brands include Sun Square, Garden Court and StayEasy. In May 2013, Tsogo Sun reported an annual turnover of R9.9-billion, a 10% increase over the previous year. Protea Hotels is South Africa’s other large group. With a presence in eight African countries, Protea has a total of more than 130 properties across three brands: Fire and Ice, Protea; Protea Hotels and African Pride Hotels, the premier brand. In South Africa, there are 90 Protea properties. Several local companies have partnerships with international brands. Sun International’s Table Bay Hotel and Lost City at Sun City are also members of the Leading Hotels of the World group. Sun International runs 17 hotels and 20 casinos throughout Southern Africa. Locations include Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Orient-Express Hotels has two five-star hotels: The Westcliff in Johannesburg and the iconic Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town. Within the luxury segment, companies like The Mantis Collection aim to cater to clients anywhere in the country; for instance, it has a small hotel in Port Elizabeth where clients stay before transferring to the game lodge at Shamwari. OVERVIEW Relais & Châteaux has 10 properties in South Africa including Londolozi Private Game Reserve, within Sabi Sands, and the Gorah Elephant Camp inside the Addo Elephant Park. Forever Resorts offers a range of accommodation options for every pocket. The group has 12 hotels and lodges together with many self-catering, camping and caravanning destinations, mostly located in the north of the country but also located at Gariep Dam and Plettenberg Bay in the Southern Cape. Nature South Africa has a great reputation for beaches, landscapes, superb wildlife and a rich cultural history. South African National Parks and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) are outstanding national organisations that oversee a range of important, but easily accessible sites. The Kruger National Park is about the size of Belgium and attracts almost a million visitors every year. Kruger covers nearly 20 000 square kilometres, it has six ecosystems, 1 982 species of plants, 517 species of birds and 147 species of mammals – including the ‘Big Five’: lion, leopard, African elephant, African buffalo and rhinoceros. The area adjacent to Kruger is rich in private game reserves, some of which are regarded as among the finest luxury tourist offerings in the world. The Sabi Sands Game Reserve has several accommodation options within its 65 000 hectares, ranging from the luxurious to the ultra-luxurious. The Addo Elephant National Park in the Eastern Cape is a 164 000-hectare facility that attracts more visitors than East Africa’s Serengeti National Park. Addo Park uniquely offers the Big Seven: with more than 450 elephants and significant numbers of the rest of the Big Five, the park includes a marine section where great white sharks and whales can be sighted. The brief of the South African National Biodiversity Institute is to run nine national botanical gardens. The 7 500 hectares of conserved gardens represent an astonishing biodiversity, ranging from the fynbos of Harold Porter to the harsh beauty of the Karoo Desert garden. SECTOR INSIGHT • SA tourism arrivals rose 6.6% outperforming the global average. • SA’s Brand Equity has performed very well • Heritage is set to boost the SA tourism brand • SA is well positioned to benefit from halaal tourism 115 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016