797 new hotel rooms under contruction in SA

The Rezidor Hotel Group, a Belgium based company owning the hotel brands Radisson, Park Inn, Regent and Country Inn, have announced a new 144 room development in Cape Town, on the Blaauwberg sea front.

This will be Rezidor's 350th hotel in operation or under construction, the 3rd group hotel in Cape Town and the 6th in South Africa. More significantly, this brings to 4 the number of new Rezidor Hotels under construction in South Africa presently, with 2 hotels in Sandton and one in Port Elizabeth currently being developed.

In total Rezidor will be opening 797 mew hotel rooms in these 4 new developments, a significant boost to the country's tourism industry and capacity, but perhaps more importantly a significant shot in the arm for confidence in the tourism industry in this country, not just presently, but in the future too.

The Blaauwberg development looks to be impressive, and I look forward to seeing if construction has begun yet when I am in Cape Town at the weekend. Beyond the 144 rooms, with impressive ocean view, view of Table Mountain and Robben Island, the Radisson Blaauwberg will boast no less than 6 state of the art conference and meeting facilities, and award winning contemporary bar and restaurant concept, outdoor swimming pool, fitness area and sun deck. So al in all an impressive offering, clearly aimed at the more up market traveller.

While clearly the 2010 World Cup is a factor in the development and significant for the country, this hotel is only scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2010 - once the football fans have all but left. However, the Park Inn Sandton - being built directly opposite the Sandton Gautrain station site, is clearly a mid market offering aimed at supplying capacity for the 2010 World Cup.

It will be interesting to see if other hotel groups follow suit, bucking the credit crunch and expanding into African and South African markets.

Well done to Rezidor for their bold investment in South Africa.

Miss World in Johannesburg - the official announcement

Having disclosed on "Living in Jozi" a full two weeks ago that the Miss World pageant was to be moved and held in Johannesburg, rather than the original host city of Kiev, the official announcement was made on the 9th September by Julia Morley, chairperson of Miss World Limited. And it appears the news media have now picked this story up too.

This will not be the first time the event is hosted in South Africa. It has been held at Sun City on no fewer than 5 previous occasions. however, it will be the first time that Johannesburg hosts the event, and forms part of the mandate of the Johannesburg Tourist Company to attract major world events to the City.

Indeed, the JTC, under leadership of its CEO Lindiwe Mahlangu, has seemingly done a remarkable job to not only prepare an outstanding bid package, but also to fend off rival bids that included England and China.

The event will be broadcast to an estimated 2-billion people (or put another way, 1 in 3 people on the planet!) in over 200 countries. It will feature 115 of the world's most beautiful women, who will spend from the 18th November in the country preparing for the event held on 13th December at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Not only is the hosting of this event a coup for the JTC and the City itself, but Julia Morley also announced that South African designers would be used to dress the contestants - clearly a boost for the South African fashion industry.

The current Miss South Africa is 23 year old Tansey Coetzee who won the title last December. She has the fantastic opportunity now to not only represent her country in front of her home country, but indeed in her very own home city of Johannesburg.

This is a fantastic opportunity both for Johannesburg and for South Africa to silence some of the sceptics who are voicing trepidation over the hosting of the 2010 World Cup in this country.

Proof - the Sun really DOES rise in Sandton City

I was on my way to the office at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, when the following sunrise greeted me as I drove down through Balirgowrie....

I couldn't help but wonder whether some clever advertising executive hadn't missed a perfect opportunity to market Sandton City just a little...