Cape Town - Tsogo Sun celebrated the official opening of its new dual-brand 19-storey hotel in the City Bowl on Thursday evening.
The R700m development is located on the corners of Bree and Strand Street and Buitengracht. It incorporates two economy hotels, namely the select service SunSquare Cape Town City Bowl with 202 bedrooms and the StayEasy Cape Town City Bowl with 302 bedrooms.
The two hotels have been developed in response to a growth trend in the mid-market hotel sector in South Africa.
According to Tsogo Sun, it represents its continued commitment to Cape Town, bringing the total number of rooms operated by the group in the city centre to over 2 000, spread across six hotels.
In addition to the two new hotels, Tsogo Sun’s other hotels in the greater Cape Town area include the Southern Sun The Cullinan, Southern Sun Waterfront, Southern Sun Cape Sun, Garden Court Nelson Mandela Boulevard, SunSquare Cape Town Gardens, Southern Sun Newlands, StayEasy Century City, and three SUN1 properties.
In addition, the Tsogo Sun Group owns the Westin at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Radisson Blu Waterfront and Protea Victoria Junction through its controlling investment in the Hospitality Property Fund.
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille attended the official opening of Tsogo Sun’s two newest hotels in Cape Town on Thursday – SunSquare City Bowl and StayEasy City Bowl.
Tsogo Sun’s newest facilities will add 504 bedrooms to the Cape Town tourism market. This will bring the total number of rooms operated by Tsogo Sun, in the Cape Town City centre to over 2 000.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Zille said the addition of these hotels will go a long way to manage the increasing demand, because tourism remains a crucial sector in the Western Cape economy.
Last year, 1.56 million international tourists travelled to the province – representing an increase of 18.5%. The increased foreign arrivals caused in an upsurge in foreign spend by 21.6% to R18.1bn last year. And over 26 000 jobs have been added to the sector between 2014 - 2016.
To her these are encouraging numbers and the goal is to see this sector growing.
Zille also acknowledged the efforts by the tourism sector in working with provincial and local authorities to bring down water use in hotels and other facilities.
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