3rd Hospitality Investment Awards finalists shortlisted

After a rigorous selection process, finalists for the 3rd Hospitality Investment Awards have been announced.  The awards form part of the exciting line up for the annual Hospitality Investment Conference Africa (HICA) scheduled to take place on 4th to 6th November 2009 at the Sandton Sun hotel in Johannesburg.

The CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), conveners of the conference, Ms. Mmatšatši Marobe maintains that the vision for the awards is to acknowledge the work and achievement of the people within the industry while showcasing their products and services.

Like the conference, the awards feature continues to grow from strength to strength with submissions coming from across the Southern African region as seen with the increased entries in 2009. This year, the award was made up of four categories, viz: – Best New Hotel Investment; Tourism Leadership; Excellence in Tourism Reporting and Mover & Shaker.

In the category of Best New Hotel Investment Award, the spot for the winner is been contested by Protea Hotel Willow Lake in Bloemfontein, the Radisson Blu Sandton and Mapungubwe Hotel in the Jo’burg CBD.  These were among the nominated projects which are thought to have set new standards and benchmarks in the industry in terms of capital investment, innovation and operational practices.

Kurt Ritter, President and CEO of the Rezidor Hotel Group; Arthur Gillis, MD of the Protea Hotel Group and Adrian Gardiner, CEO of the Mantis Group are contesting the award for the Tourism Business Leadership.

For the Mover and Shaker Award category, the finalists are Andrew McLachlan, Vice-President of Business Development at Rezidor Hotel Group and Craig Drysdale, GM Charter Division at Springbok Atlas.

Due the slow response from the travel and tourism journalism, the 2009 award of Excellence in Tourism Reporting received less qualifying nominations. The finalist in this category is Now Media’s, Kate Els.

All nominations were subjected to a stringent selection criterion and given that the judging panel was made up of a team of experts from within the tourism and hospitality sectors, nominees did not have it easy.  Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions carried out the difficult task of collating, assessing the nominations and facilitating the selection of the finalists and winners.

“The high quality of the submissions and the worthy finalists gives confidence to the future of hospitality investment in Africa”, says Pila Rulashe, Senior Consultant for Grant Thornton.   “We are grateful with the assistance of Grant Thornton in the role they continue to play in HICA especially their role of coordinating the Awards.  They have been involved with HICA since its inauguration in 2007 and we are pleased that they are still involved” Marobe added.  “We are immensely thankful for the expertise and time devoted to the awards by the judges, viz: – Pieter de Bruin, Head of Tourism at FNB; Professor Ernie Heath of Pretoria University; Franco Jordaan of Court Classique; Aneme Malan, Chief Director of Tourism Development at the National Department of Tourism; Jackie Asheeke, CEO of Namibian Federation of Tourism Associations (FENATA); Ben Rootman and Martin van Niekerk from Junxion Communications” conclude Marobe.

The winners of the 2009 HICA Awards in the four categories will be announced during the conference on 5th and 6th November. Registration to attend the HICA conference which has secured impressive local and international speakers is still open.  To register, view the conference program and the speakers, log on to www.hica.co.za. Alternatively contact Ms. Zelda Coetzee on 021 762 1442 for enquiries.