6 minute read
A SUN THAT NEVER SETS
Marnie Tait, national sales manager for Sun International, talks to Meetings on the group’s strategy through the Covid-19 pandemic and what guests can look forward to in the future.
From deep cleaning and hygiene protocols, to tech-driven meetings platforms, it is encouraging to see the strides that Sun International is taking in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Can you elaborate on this, in addition to how Sun International’s offering as a venue has had to evolve to where it is currently? The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged our concept of ‘normal’ and has changed the way in which we do business and interact with one another.
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Like businesses the world over, Sun International has had to introduce new worldclass hygiene and safety protocols in order to be able to reopen safely. In some cases, our new health and safety protocols exceed local and international benchmarks, and we are confident that we can offer our guests a safe experience at our properties.
At our urban casinos, we have installed physical shields between slot machines and between seats at gaming tables. Every second slot machine has been disabled to ensure appropriate physical distancing between guests on the casino floor. Only guests who are booked into our hotels or are members of Sun International’s loyalty programme – Most Valued Guests (MVGs) – will be allowed access into hotels and on to casino floors for the foreseeable future. Golfers will be allowed to access golf courses at our properties.
Safety measures across all our properties include temperature tests conducted at entrances. Anyone accessing our properties – including visitors, staff, concessionaires and suppliers – is required to complete a medical screening questionnaire before they can enter our premises, including our restaurants.
Within this, please share with our readers where Sun International is starting to experience activity increasing as lockdown regulations ease, as well as what you are anticipating in the short term (3-6 months) and longer term (6-36 months) as far as travel and social gatherings are concerned? We were permitted to reopen our urban casinos from 1 July. Initially, casino hotels had to remain closed but with the reopening of intra-provincial leisure tourism in August, they have been able to reopen.
Sun International restaurants, as well as those belonging to third-party concessionaires, have reopened with reconfigured layouts and the necessary physical distancing rules. They will not serve alcohol, in line with current regulations. Some may not reopen immediately, or may open only at certain times.
Many entertainment facilities at casino properties might also remain closed for now. As national and international borders are still closed, certain Sun International properties will not open for the time being. These include Sun City Resort, The Wild Coast Sun Resort, The Boardwalk Hotel, The Maslow Sandton Hotel and The Table Bay in Cape Town. These properties are hoping to reopen from 1 October. It would be difficult to overestimate the impact that the pandemic has had on business and leisure travel, but we believe that the industry will recover.
In the medium term, we believe domestic markets will pick up this year, but activity is likely be muted to begin with, as many companies will need to regain ground from business lost during the lockdown.
While it is too soon to predict whether people will want to travel or attend conferences and events when borders are reopened, we anticipate that international travel will only realistically resume in 2021. Until then, the hospitality, conferencing and eventing industry will need to devise ways in which to stimulate domestic business.
What are Sun International’s current objectives as a business and where do
DIGITAL CONFERENCING
Sun International’s virtual conferencing training or meeting platforms can accommodate small or big sessions of more than 500 delegates, with different links from each presenter or organiser. Speakers are hosted in the Sun Studio, which provides access to a high-resolution LED wall, web presenter and AV equipment such as HD cameras, studio lighting, with on-screen effects such as branding also possible. The streaming platforms, with over 100 Mbps of bandwidth, is set up according to the client’s specifications. Attendees can access live conferences, meetings and presentations from their phones, computers, tablets or laptops. Sun Studios has made vast streaming platforms available for: • Virtual conferences and summits • Live and virtual hybrid events • Live streaming • Team building • Webinars and training events. This solution is platform agnostic, and can offer streaming on platforms such as Antenna, powered by AntFarm, Zoom, WebEx, Vimeo and Facebook, among others. For companies worried about productivity, Sun International’s virtual conferences will provide comprehensive analytics by device ¬– on demand and post event. This includes participant viewing time, user registration information, as well as geographical region. All conference sessions will be recorded and provided to the organiser after the event, allowing them to be posted to websites or the channel of your choice, expanding the audience if required.
you fit in? What does your portfolio pipeline look like? I have recently been appointed to the position of national sales manager for Sun International. My portfolio includes national corporate travel, conferencing, associations, government, sports, events and entertainment market segments.
Plans for the remainder of 2020 include ensuring that we are top of mind for our all clients and that they will feel safe when visiting one of our properties. A top priority for us is to keep in touch with our clients through various virtual platforms and to continue to engage and build our business pipeline for 2021. We are continually working towards making the transition of the new norm as easy as possible for our clients and will keep adapting and implementing as we go along.
We are in constant collaboration with all our industry associations as we all lobby together for the opening of tourism the sector. Lastly, what can guests and patrons expect in the future? Conferencing and eventing require very precise planning but the pandemic represents a moving target that will require several contingency plans. Even as the curve is flattened, we need to be aware that there could be second and even third waves. The reality is that until the world has a vaccine, companies will need to develop flexible strategies that can coexist with the Covid-19 virus.
The pandemic has also sparked a demand for smaller gatherings with limited numbers and will change the way in which banqueting works. Large-scale events with buffet offerings will no longer be an option, and chefs will need to consider creative new menus and innovative ways in which to serve people.
We anticipate that conferences of the future will be a hybrid form of digital technology and people physically attending a venue. It is
possible that international guests will do their presentations digitally, while some companies might require that out-of-town delegates, especially those in high-risk categories, also attend conferences digitally. A further consideration is that many companies will choose a semi-digital form of conferencing as they try to contain travel costs.
Our virtual conferencing offering will be capable of hosting meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions and events.
Future business events will also be dependent on whether regulations on social gatherings can be relaxed into the future. At this point in time, guests attending conferences will most likely need to be booked into a specific seat for the entire conference.
Entertainment events are likely to have the longest road to recovery as the very notion of social distancing now makes hosting a ‘normal’ concert high-risk at this time.
