Recently there has been a shift towards executive travellers and MICE clients opting for suites or apartments rather than the standard hotel room. Danny Bryer from the Protea Hospitality Group speaks to Marisa Lourenço about the reasons why.

The face of entertainment on the West Rand is set to change with the R480 million refurbishment of Silverstar. 

“The contractors are setting up on site in preparation for the project and construction has already begun. Visitors will start to notice changes taking place, with the fountain already drained and filled in,” comments Shane Collinson, Director of Operations & Complex GM of Silverstar.

South Africa’s future decision-makers, movers and shakers have had their say and for the third year in a row, Protea Hotels has been named the coolest hotel group in the Sunday Times Generation Next 2013 Brand Survey awards.

With warming soup and chilling milkshakes on offer there was something for everyone who joined the last-minute rush over the weekend to deliver blankets to Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! in Cape Town and Melrose Arch for the annual Twitter Blanket Drive.

The hotels together collected approximately 3 300 blankets that will warm many lives over the next few cold months, which in the case of the Western Cape will be wet as well, adding to the misery of those in need.

Think you have what it takes to be a hotel revenue manager? Put your skills to the test as Protea Hotels makes you the chief in charge of your very own hotel.

In May this year, the Protea Hospitality Group launched an iPad app challenging you to see if you have what it takes to run your own Protea Hotel – or any other hotel or business – profitably.

Winter means red wine, hearty oxtail and fireplaces to many people, but to others it’s the most dreaded time of year when icy hands are warmed at open fires and a blanket becomes life’s biggest dream.

That’s why Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! in Cape Town and Melrose Arch are throwing open their doors to all the “haves” who have blankets to help those who don’t by enthusiastically raiding their cupboards and making this year’s Twitter Blanket Drive the most successful ever.

Now tourism businesses in South Africa have something to strive for in addition to thriving, profitable businesses and a healthy, robust bottom line: the new Lilizela Tourism Awards that will reward and celebrate excellence across the tourism industry.

Lilizela is an Nguni word which means to ululate: an act of congratulations when someone has done something well. The Awards will recognise and reward tourism players and businesses who work passionately and with pride to deliver a world class product and service and whose delivery grows South Africa’s global destination competitiveness.

SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM and the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP) announced the names of the nine provincial finalists for the 2013 Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (ETEYA) competition on the 10^th of May.

ETEYA is a nationwide tourism industry competition which recognises and honours South Africa’s best, most promising and most innovative emerging tourism business owners.

South Africa’s days of building hotels without equity are over, Protea Hospitality Group CEO Arthur Gillis has told the Hospitality Investment Conference Africa (HICA) in Durban.

He has warned delegates attending the conference that in Protea Hotels’ experience a minimum of 50% equity will be needed from investors to finance hotels for the foreseeable future – and that is only on the assumption that all other development success factors are already in place.