New hotel slated for V&A; Waterfront

7 January 2014

A new hotel is to be built this year at the V&A; Waterfront in Cape Town, the popular tourist destination said in a statement on Monday.

The hotel will be "a mid-market, internationally branded hotel", the statement said.

David Green, chief executive of the V&A; Waterfront, said: "Given the growth in domestic, business and leisure tourism, coupled with consistent growth in the occupancy at our current hotels over the past 18 months, we believe the opportunity exists for a mid-market hotel development."

Tourism to Cape Town is expected to grow at between 4% and 5% in 2014, according to figures from Cape Town Tourism. The United Nations World Travel Organisation has estimated a global year-on year increase of 3.3% a year until 2030.

For Cape Town, the V&A; says, the majority of source markets are European, while the biggest growth market is Latin America.

The Waterfront says it receives more than 24-million visitors a year, and has contributed almost R200-billion to South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) in the past 10 years.

Occupancy

The One & Only was the last hotel built at the Waterfront in 2009. The Queen Victoria is the newest hotel, the result of a refurbishment of an existing building in 2011.

The V&A; has six five-star hotels, two four-star hotels and two three-star hotels. Within Cape Town, there are 24 five-star, 54 four-star and 20 three-star hotels.

An independent report commissioned by the V&A; Waterfront shows that revenue per available room (RevPAR) of Waterfront hotels was higher than those of the surrounding areas, Green said.

According to a report by consultants Wilkofsky Gruen Associates quoted by Green, a snapshot of the South African hotel sector's performance over the period January to June 2013 reflects sustained growth with RevPAR (revenue per available room) increasing by 13.1% on a national aggregated basis.

"Healthy growth" of 12.4% was experienced at three- and four-star hotels, while five-star hotels reflected an "impressive" 15.6% growth. Cape Town's growth in this sector was pegged at 16.2%.

Kamil Abdul-Karrim, MD of Pam Golding Tourism and Hospitality Consulting, said the South African hotel industry had come through its worst trading cycle - from the last quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2011 - and is now beginning to reflect sustainable signs of recovery with the last three quarters reflecting year-on-year growth.

Source: V&A; Waterfront