Managing the influx of guests here to honour Mandela is no easy task – Sun International
As South Africa continues to mourn the loss of former ANC leader and South African president Nelson Mandela, the countries tourist infrastructure is girding its loins to cope with the influx of foreign dignitaries, celebrities, officials, and unofficials who are descending on South Africa to memorialise Madiba. According to Sun International's head of communications Michael Farr, hotels across the country and, especially, in the cities where commemorative events are to be held, are already booked out. There're no rooms to be had in Sandton, says Farr, and hotels in Port Elizabeth are also nearing capacity as people from all over the world arrive to attend memorial services. With the influx coming on top of the usual seasonal spike that comes with the summer, South Africa's tourism businesses will be hard pressed over the next few weeks. – FD
MICHAEL FARR: Michael, I think you have bigger things on your mind right now, probably lots of your friends from your international travels trying to call in favours trying to get themselves a room at the inn.
MICHAEL FARR: There certainly are many people coming out, and of course, people locally that are moving to the two main parts of the country where the memorial services and the funeral for former President Mandela, is taking place. Of course, the complication when you get sudden demand at this time of the year is that it comes at the same time as high season demand. I'm sure that other people in the hospitality industry like ourselves were already running fairly high occupancy rates before the sudden demand that was created. We are obviously seeing particular demand in the Sandton area. We don't have a property in Pretoria, but in Sandton, we're pretty much at 100 percent, except for one night, which is on the 11th of December. In Port Elizabeth, the demand is just ……
ALEC HOGG: Can give us on how many Heads of State… The latest figure we got was 70 – from government. Would that correlate with the kind of numbers and experience that you're having?
MICHAEL FARR: As I mentioned, the Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth and in Sandton – the Maslow hotel. The Port Elizabeth property has more predominantly national dignitaries, whereas Sandton more international dignitaries.
ALEC HOGG: What about celebrities?
MICHAEL FARR: There are, as I'm sure you know, celebrities coming out as well, but in terms of their identities, we afford them the same protection as we do to the dignitaries. We don't announce who's in our hotels, not only when they're there but also after they've gone. We generally don't announce it because if we did, they wouldn't stay in our property, so that's a pretty good reason for keeping it to ourselves.
ALEC HOGG: Sure, I appreciate that but Michael, just tell us a little bit about the pricing. Clearly, hotels are demand and supply businesses. Have you been bumping up your prices over this period of extreme demand?
MICHAEL FARR: As I said Alec, it is high season, so the prices were, and are higher at this time of year than they would have been in October or November, so our prices reflect the fact that it's high season and that demand is high. I can tell you that in terms of rack rates, which is what people commonly know are the rates that normally are at the higher level that apply in season/demand period, we are not lifting any of our rates above rack rates.
ALEC HOGG: When is the period going to be? Perhaps you can give us some days, arrivals, or departures of all of these overseas dignitaries that are coming through for the funeral.
MICHAEL FARR: Yes, for us the intense period is literally now, as of yesterday right through to the 15th of December in terms of people that are coming here to honour and pay tribute to former President Mandela, his legacy, and his life. That is blending with people that are also coming because they're going on holiday, so it's the two that are going together at the moment.
ALEC HOGG: It's good to see that there is that kind of demand already going in the hotel industry, but I guess if you haven't booked your hotel room yet, Michael…no chance
MICHAEL FARR: That's pretty much the case I think, in the Sandton area. Certainly, in Port Elizabeth we're still able to accommodate people that are looking at going down to Qunu. I would imagine for the next 24 to 48 hours you'd still be able to get a room at Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth, but after 48 hours it's pretty much going to be gone.
ALEC HOGG: That was Michael Farr from Sun International.