Tourism

Airlink has teamed up with successful international carriers.

Airlink, which ended its franchise agreement after SAA went into business rescue, has signed deals with Qatar Airways, Emirates and United Airlines, giving travellers on those successful international carriers easy access to a wide range of Southern African destinations and St Helena.

Single-ticket arrangements and one-stop baggage check-ins will facilitate easier travel in a difficult time. Airlink also has a service that connects travellers with certain game lodges. Airlink boasts an on-time performance consistently better than 95%.

When the Marriott International hotel group closed three of its South African hotels during the Covid-19 lockdown, Tsogo Sun Hotels, which owns a controlling stake in all three hotels, stepped up its commitment by agreeing to bring them into its portfolio, keep them open and run them.

One of these hotels is the The Mount Grace in the Magaliesberg which was developed by the Brand family and was the sister hotel to The Grace in Rosebank. Tsogo bought and restored The Grace and it currently operates as 54 on Bath. The Tsogo group believes that demand for conferencing, weddings and shorter family getaways will grow and that The Mount Grace, with its close proximity to Johannesburg, is in a good position to respond to those markets.

Tsogo Sun Holdings has split its casino and hotel operations to unlock value in the two sectors. With a market cap of R25-billion, Tsogo is the country’s biggest hotel group. It has 36 hotels and three casinos in Gauteng. The hotel brands cover four market segments, and they include a handful of stand-alone hotels such as the Palazzo (at Montecasino) and the boutique hotel in Rosebank. SunSquare, Southern Sun Hotels, Southern Sun Resorts, Garden Court and StayEasy are among the group’s brands.

Marriott International has retained most of its properties. In partnership with the Amdec Group, Marriott spent about R1-billion on the Marriott Hotel Melrose Arch and Marriott Executive Apartments Johannesburg Melrose Arch. Buying into Protea Hotels has also given Marriott access to other African countries.

Although all projections about the tourism sector and its potential for growth and for job creation were short-circuited by the Covid-19 pandemic, the fact remains that the sector can grow quickly and it is a good job creator.

Growing Gauteng Together (GGT2030) is a plan of action formulated by the Gauteng Provincial Government which intends to transform, modernise and industrialise the provincial economy. The expansion of the tourism sector is seen as one of the key methods of achieving those goals. This was emphasised when the 2020 State of the Province Address included Tourism and Hospitality as one of 10 “high-growth” sectors. ■

ONLINE RESOURCES

Cradle of Humankind: www.maropeng.co.za Gauteng Tourism Authority: www.gauteng.net Johannesburg Tourism Company: www.joburgtourism.com SECTOR INSIGHT Growing Gauteng Together (GGT2030) plans to boost the tourism sector.

Cullinan South Africa

Cullinan is a small town in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is located 30 km (19 mi) east of the city of Pretoria along the diamond route. Cullinan earned its place in history with the discovery of the Cullinan diamond in 1905, the largest rough gem diamond ever found at 3,106 carats. The Cullinan Diamond Mine is also renowned as a source of large, highquality gem diamonds, including Type II stones, as well as being the world’s most important source of very rare blue diamonds. Visit Cullinan by booking a tour through the following touring operators: Premier Diamond Tours: pdtours@iafrica.com Cullinan Tours: www.cullinantours.co.za Fundani Tourism: peterson@fundanitours.co.za Cullinan Tourism & History CC: info@cullinantourismandhistory.co.za

Visit CullinanCoordinates: 25°40ʹ22ʺS 28°31ʹ15ʺE