Eastern Cape Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
Along the beachfront at Summerstand can be found the Protea
Marine, a 173-room Radisson Blu and the Beach Hotel. The last-named
hotel is run by the Port Elizabeth Hotel Group which also has in its
portfolio Hacklewood Hill Country House, The Sands @ St Francis and
Pumba Private Game Reserve.
Curious in Buffalo City
The dodo, a flightless bird from Mauritius, famously became extinct
and was last spotted in the 1660s. Museums around Europe had various
parts of the animal as specimens but no-one realised that they were
holding anything valuable, until just about all of them were either
lost or thrown away. But the East London Museum has something
truly unique – a dodo egg! Another creature that was thought extinct
until one was found again in 1938, the fascinating coelacanth, is one
of the museum’s most popular displays. The discovery of “Old Four
Legs” as the creature came to be known, caused a stir at the time.
The museum’s shipwreck and palaeontological sections are also very
good. The nearby East London Aquarium is South Africa’s oldest,
having opened in December 1931.
Wildlife
The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency is in charge of 34 provincial
nature reserves within the Eastern Cape. The Addo Elephant
National Park (Addo) is arguably the province’s greatest attraction,
and is under the control of South African National Parks. Addo extends
over 180 000 hectares on land (with thousands more square
ONLINE RESOURCES
Buffalo City Tourism: www.bctourism.co.za
Calabash Trust: www.calabashtrust.co.za
Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board: www.ecgbb.co.za
Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency:
www.visiteasterncape.co.za
Feather Market Convention Centre: wwwfeathermarket.co.za
Karoo tourism research: www.ufs.ac.za./cds
Kirkwood Wildlife Festival: www.wildsfees.co.za
Mandela Bay Development Agency: www.mbda.co.za
National Arts Festival: www.nafest.co.za
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism: www.nmbt.co.za
South African Tourism: www.southafrica.net
Tourism Enterprise Partnership: www.tep.co.za
South African National Parks: www.sanparks.org
meterage in the marine reserve)
and attracts more visitors than
East Africa’s Serengeti National
Park. Addo uniquely offers visitors
the opportunity to view the Big
Seven, as it has more than 650
elephants, along with the rest of
the Big Five. The park includes a
marine section where great white
sharks and whales can be sighted.
The Camdeboo, Mountain
Zebra and Garden Route national
parks offer very different experiences
for the visitor, covering as
they do terrain ranging from karoo
veld and mountain plateau to
coastal forests. In addition to the
provincial and national parks, the
Eastern Cape has a large number
of high-end, luxury game
reserves and lodges. These include
the Kwantu Private Game
Reserve between Port Elizabeth
and Grahamstown. In 2016, the
reserve won Best Luxury Wildlife
Resort presented at the World
Luxury Hotel Awards.
Some luxury game lodges are
located within national parks,
such as the Gorah Elephant
Camp, which is run by Hunter
Hotels and forms part of the
Addo Park. Luxury brands sometimes
create a chain for their customers
so visitors might stay at
the boutique Summerstand hotel
in Port Elizabeth, No5 By Mantis,
on their way to another Mantis
property, the Oceana Beach and
Wildlife Reserve.
EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017
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