KwaZulu-Natal Business 2016-17 edition

OVERVIEW
734 rooms, the Southern Sun
Elangeni & Maharani will boast
the most accommodation in the
province. It has nine restaurants
and bars.
Protea Hotel Hospitality Group
announced in 2011 that the
group had set up a fund to buy
distressed hotels. Protea already
has more hotel beds in South
Africa than any other group and
by 2012 had spent about R1.5-
billion on upgrades to hotels in
its portfolio.
Protea Hotels has 18 properties
in the province, with seven
in Durban including the Protea
Hotel Edward.
Hilton Durban opened a new
venue in October 2015, the 'Big
Easy Wine Bar and Grill', a collaboration
with world-renowned
golfer Ernie Els, and previously
best known off the golf course
for his wine range.
The upgrading of the Point
area between the beach and
the Port of Durban has resulted
in major investments. The
Docklands Hotel at the Durban
Waterfront is a four-star Signature
development that cost about
R100-million to develop. The
Quays on Timeball Square offers
luxury apartments and six penthouses
in a canal setting with
views of the Atlantic Ocean.
The iconic Royal Hotel in the
heart of Durban is one of eight
Three Cities Group hotels in the
province. The Golden Horse
Casino Hotel is a Three Cities
property, and the Group administers
the International Hotel
School in Westville that is also
home to the Christine Martin
School of Food and Wine.
IFA Hotels & Resorts runs several luxury properties including the
Zimbali Coastal Resort and Zimbali Lakes Resort. Signature Life Hotels
has 13 properties ranging from Tala Game Reserve in its lodge portfolio
to five Signature Hotels. Gooderson Leisure has a varied portfolio, including
the Tropicana and Beach hotels in Durban, lodges in Hluhluwe
and the Drakensberg Gardens Golf & Spa Resort.
Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom, a Sun International
property, is north of Durban between Umdloti and Umhlanga. The
casinos in Newcastle (Century City), Empangeni (Tusk Umfolozi Casino)
and Pietermaritzburg (Golden Horse Casino) are run by Century Casinos
Newcastle, Peermont Global and Akani Msunduzi Management respectively.
Durban’s Golden Mile is the site of the province’s biggest
casino complex: the Sun Coast Casino and Entertainment World
(Tsogo Sun) has 1 330 slot machines, 12 restaurants and eight cinemas.
Assets
KwaZulu-Natal has great beaches along the entire coastline, from
the popular South Coast, through the perfect surfing spots in
Durban to the wetlands of the north.
The iSimangaliso Wetland and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg
Park are World Heritage Sites. The province has six Ramsar wetlands
and more than 100 nature reserves controlled by the provincial
authority. The province is also famous for its luxurious private game
reserves and lodges that offer unique viewings of black rhino.
The rolling hills that Alan Paton made famous in Cry, the Beloved
Country contrast with the coastal plains, the sheer walls of basalt
that make up the Drakensberg in the east and the volcanic
Lebombo mountain range in the north.
The warm current allows for year-round swimming. Along the
coast the climate ranges from mild tropical in the south to fully
tropical in the north. It can get very humid in the north while the
interior regions are cooler. The high-lying interior parts get snow
in winter.
Zulu heritage is celebrated on King Shaka Day in September
with an impressive ceremony and draws many tourists. Important
sites include the eMakhosini Heritage Park, Ulundi and Nongoma,
where the current Zulu king resides.
The Freedom Route celebrates great characters who fought for
freedom from apartheid, including Chief Albert Luthuli, Mahatma
Gandhi, Dr John Dube and Alan Paton.
The Battlefields Route caters to thousands of local and foreign
enthusiasts and providing much-needed employment in the north
of the province.
Indian temples in Durban and on the North Coast provide superb
architecture to admire while there are several sites, particularly
107 KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2016/17