IAAPA expands its international operations to include Africa

With less than a month to go until the third annual Attractions Africa conference from 8 to 9 June, 2016 in Cape Town, comes the big news that the event has been recognised as the continent’s foremost Attractions management event by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).

Founded in 2014, Attractions Africa is a collaborative effort between some of the continent’s top Attractions including Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, Two Oceans Aquarium, SAB World of Beer and Cape Point.  

The two day Attractions Africa programme comprises international speakers sharing trends, benchmarks and best practice, as well as local examples of excellence, case studies and white papers presented by local Attraction managers.

Attracting hundreds of delegates from all over Africa and in the tourism industry, Attractions Africa, chaired by Sabine Lehmann, is the driving force in IAAPA’s decision to include the continent in its operations and change its name to IAAPA EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa):

“What an honour for our conference and Africa to be recognised by such a global Attractions management force! As the only event of its kind on the continent, Attractions Africa is the pioneer in the local attractions industry and we are excited to be bringing together its top leaders and peers each year with the full support of IAAPA EMEA”, says a thrilled Lehmann.

IAAPA EMEA’s announcement of recognition comes as a result of the organisation’s decision to expand the scope of operations of its Europe regional office to incorporate the Middle East and Africa to better serve IAAPA EMEA’s members in the regions.

“The formation of the IAAPA EMEA office in Brussels further strengthens IAAPA’s international presence and reiterates the association’s commitment to serve its members in the Middle East and Africa region,” said Karen Staley, senior vice president of IAAPA EMEA Operations. “With explosive growth in the Middle East and the quickly emerging market in the continent of Africa, we look forward to playing a role in this exciting growth period for the attractions industry.”

Join us at the Attractions Africa conference:

Registration is open for the Attractions Africa 2016 Conference, which will be held at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Cape Town – Upper Eastside from Wednesday 8 to Thursday 9 June, 2016.   To register and for more information about the Attractions Africa conference, please visit www.attractionsafrica.co.za or call +27 (0)21 683 2934.

Summary: South Africa has been flying direct to Mauritius for 50 years. Read about the history on how this half-a-century flight route began.  

Johannesburg, 22 January 2015: This year, South African Airways (SAA)celebrates a half-century of direct flights between Johannesburg and Mauritius. The airline presently operates daily flights on the route with a recent 9% increase in frequency resulting in twice-daily operations on Thursdays with double flights on Saturdays and Sundays. The route was one of SAA’s first Indian Ocean island destinations and has shown sustained growth over the past fifty years.  

The airline first introduced flights between Johannesburg and the Indian Ocean Island in 1957 as a refuelling stop en-route to Perth, with direct end-point flights commencing eight years later.  “Mauritius has remained an important destination for SAA throughout its history,” says SAA Acting CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout. “Recent frequency additions on several key African routes, including Mauritius, hold strategic commercial value for the business and forms part of the impetus of the LTTS (Long-Term Turnaround Strategy). Mauritius remains one of the fastest growing economies on the continent with consistent demand-side growth in both business and leisure travel.”  

Load factors on the route continue to perform positively, with growing trade and economic development driving business travel outside of seasonal leisure trips. Mauritius has enjoyed consistent GDP growth at an aggregate of 5,9% since 1995. “There has been a marked increase in inbound directional travel from the island to Johannesburg, too,” says Bezuidenhout, “with Johannesburg serving as hub and entry point into other African, American and European destinations.” SAA serves as patron to the South African Chamber of Commerce in Mauritius to further advance its business community engagement.  

It all started on 25 November 1957 when SAA, in partnership with Qantas, introduced a fortnightly DC-7B service across the Indian Ocean from Johannesburg to Perth; stopping at Mauritius and the Cocos Islands. This flight took 25 hours and was known as the “Wallaby Service”. On 7 May 1965, the SAA DC-7B service to Australia via Mauritius was increased to a weekly service. The DC aircraft was retired from the SAA fleet in 1967 and Mauritius became an online station as from 1965.  

On 29 March 1967, SAA started operating the B707 to Australia via Mauritius only. The Cocos Islands stop was removed and on 17 May 1967, the Boeing 707 aircraft set up a new record for the flight between Mauritius and Perth, covering 3,740 miles in just 5 hours and 32 minutes.   The Mauritius route is now served by the Airbus A320, the latest arrival in the SAA fleet.    

About South African Airways (SAA)
South African Airways (SAA) is the leading carrier in Africa, serving 57 destinations, in partnership with SA Express, SA Airlink and its low cost carrier, Mango, within South Africa and across the continent, and ten intercontinental routes from its Johannesburg hub. It is a member of the largest international airline network, Star Alliance. SAA’s core business is the provision of passenger airline and cargo transport services together with related services, which are provided through SAA and its wholly owned subsidiaries: SAA Technical; Mango its low cost carrier; and Air Chefs, the catering entity of SAA. SAA is the winner of the 'Best Airline in Africa’ Award in the regional category for twelve consecutive years and the winner of ‘Service Excellence Africa’ for three years. Mango and SAA hold the number one and number two successive spots as South Africa’s most on - time airlines.  

Issued by SAA Communications  
For more information contact: Tlali Tlali This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +27 82 333 3880  

Our ongoing efforts to grow out footprint in South Africa and selected countries are bearing fruit.

At our interim results announcement on February 18, we updated the market on the progress we are making.

Here’s a rundown of what’s in the development works.

In South Africa:

• We fully opened the 149-room City lodge Hotel Waterfall City Hotel at Midrand in February
• The 148-room City Lodge Hotel Newtown (downtown Johannesburg) is well underway and will open before the end of 2015
• The 90-room Road Lodge Pietermaritzburg will commence in February and is scheduled to open in November

Elsewhere in Africa:

• Earthworks are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2015 for the 169-room City Lodge Hotel Two Rivers in Nairobi, Kenya, and for the 147-room City Lodge Hotel Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.
• A financial feasibility study is being conducted into the possible development of a 150-room City Lodge Hotel in Kampala, Uganda.
• A memorandum of understanding (subject to conditions) has been entered into for the possible development of a 140 to 150-room Town Lodge in Windhoek, Namibia
• Negotiations are at an advanced stage for the development of 150 to 160-room City Lodge Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique.

The bottom line is that we will soon have more great locations to meet your business and leisure accommodation needs – both in SA and elsewhere on the continent!

In conjunction with CemAir, Kurland Hotel just outside Plettenberg Bay in the magnificent Crags, have created a unique Valentines opportunity for guests.

Return flights from Cape Town or Johannesburg to Plettenberg Bay, including all airport taxes and comp bar & snack on board.Included are complimentary transfers to and from Plettenberg Bay Airport, a bottle of Method Cap Classic on arrival, 2 night’s accommodation in an Elegant Suite including breakfast, available 1-28 February 2015, complimentary upgrade, if available, 3 course romantic private dinner for the 1 evening, a rose petal turn down and a 45 minute couples massage in the new Sanctuary Signature Spa.

The above is subject to availability and terms & conditions apply. R11, 470 per person sharing ex Cape Town or R12, 220 per person sharing ex Johannesburg.

For bookings contact 083 280 1160

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Discover the most romantic address on the Garden Route  

November 2014

On Monday, 24 November, the 5-star Kurland Hotel, situated in Plettenberg Bay, hosted this year’s CXPRESS Garden Route Culinary Awards, at its seasonal restaurant, Katarina’s Kitchen + Bar. At the awards ceremony, Kurland Hotel Restaurant was presented with the Best Service 2014 Award, which was accepted on behalf of the Hotel by Executive Chef, Leon Coetzee.

Owner of Kurland Hotel, Peter Behr says: “We are proud to receive the Best Service Award and it’s a wonderful way to start the summer season ahead. It was also a great platform to showcase some of our culinary offerings for the season ahead at both Kurland Hotel Restaurant, the finer dining option, and Katarina’s Kitchen + Bar which is family bistro style cuisine.” 

This event was judged by head honcho of the South African Chaîne de Rôtisseurs, Francois Ferreira and Anne Hadley, local foodie supreme and better half of the late Ian Hadley, who started the awards shortly after the turn of the century to acknowledge local service and cooking excellence. The judges were supported by a team of 16 ‘ghost diners’.

This press release has been distributed on behalf of our client, Kurland Hotel.

For more information,

contact Reservations on 044 534 8082.

Kurland Hotel can be viewed at: www.kurland.co.za

09 September 2014 - The Eco-schools committee, overseen by Elaine Louw-Balie the Principle of the Hendrick Kanise School Alicedale, Eastern Cape, recently identified two learners based on their involvement in environmental activities, their awareness of environmental issues and leadership qualities to see who would be the most suitable to represent not only the school and the Eastern Cape but also South Africa at the upcoming World Youth Rhino Summit held in Durban from 21 – 23 September 2014.

The Group General Manager of Shamwari Group, Joe Cloete, along with General Manager Gunther Strauss of Shamwari Game Reserve   and Shamwari Lodge Manager Brian Mullins,  interviewed Sinethemba Tsamse and Athenkosi Bangela and agreed they were the ideal students to become ‘Rhino Ambassadors’. 

Comments Joe Cloete, “Naturally we are passionate about conserving a vanishing way of life and rhino in particular, as well as lions, need as much support as they can get to ensure their future. As part of our Forever Wild Campaign in conjunction with the Wilderness Foundation, we have raised over R7 million to date and this initiative to educate and empower the youth is ideal in order to ensure that the next generation of wildlife warriors prevent the extinction of the rhino.” 

These young Ambassadors will be flown to KwaZulu-Natal to attend the World Youth Rhino Summit. It will be a hugely educational trip for them where they will rub shoulders with other motivated youths from all over the world. They will be given huge exposure to environmental issues, conservation issues and of course issues pertaining to the conservation of rhino not only in Africa but the world. These young Ambassadors are encouraged to grasp this opportunity to widen their personal horizons and to return empowered to share their experiences with other learners and teachers and to spread the messages and knowledge that they will be exposed to at The World Youth Rhino Summit.

The runner up of the selection process Ayanda Mpahla won herself a behind the scenes trip to Shamwari Game Reserve to learn more about wildlife and the protection of rhino in particular.  

www.youthrhinosummit.com
www.shamwarigroup.com

This press release has been distributed on behalf of our client, Shamwari Group.
For further media information please contact:

The P.R Team
Cape Town,
South Africa
T: + 27 (0) 21 419 2390/1
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