There is room for African tourism entrepreneurs to be part of HICA Awards – Mmatšatši Marobe

The 3rd Hospitality Investment Conference Africa, ended last Friday with an announcement of winners for the 2009 HICA Awards.  The awards, which were presented over two days, saw well-regarded tourism and hospitality brands and their representatives being rewarded for outstanding achievement in their respective fields.

This year, the awards were made up of four categories, viz: – Best New Hotel Investment; Tourism Leadership; Excellence in Tourism Reporting and Mover & Shaker.

The final results are as follows:

• Best New Hotel Investment award winner: Faircity Hotels for Mapungubwe Hotel, Johannesburg
• Tourism Business Leadership award winner: Adrian Gardiner, CEO of the Mantis Group
• Mover and Shaker award winner: Andrew McLachlan of the Rezidor Hotel Group
• Excellence in Tourism Reporting  award winner: Kate Els from Now Media

Pila Rulashe, Senior Consultant for Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions reiterated that submissions received this year were of a high calibre, considering that industry leaders, Kurt Ritter of the Rezidor Hotel Group and Arthur Gillis of Protea Hotels were finalists in one of the categories.

However, the CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Mmatšatši Marobe highlighted the need to put more effort in encouraging participation from other parts of the continent.

“While we are happy with the quality of submissions for this year’s awards, we look forward to receiving submissions beyond the borders of Southern Africa.  The HICA Awards are about celebrating the excellent work in the tourism and hospitality sectors across the continent.  Next year we will certainly do more to increase participation” she said.

Marobe, thanked Grant Thornton for their continued involvement in HICA as well as the judging panel 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.

She also expressed appreciation to this year’s sponsors the National Department of Tourism, FNB, hotel groups the Rezidor, Accor, African Sun and the GroupRCI, Springbok Atlas, Trade and Investment KZN, the IDC, Now Media and the Global Hotel Network as well as supporting partners Pam Golding Hospitality, Boundless Southern Africa, Tourism Intelligence International and Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa.

“Even as we wrap up HICA 2009 and announce this year’s award winners, preparations for 2010 are already underway. Next year’s conference will take place from 31 October to 2 November and we look forward to continuing relations with our current sponsors and all our partners”, Marobe concluded.