MINOR Hotel Group
has officially opened
a regional office in
Johannesburg to represent
its ten properties in Southern
Africa – a strategic move that
will enable it to strengthen
its position and maximise
opportunities within Africa.
“Now that we have set up
an office in Johannesburg,
expansion into Africa will
be easier,” says ceo, Dillip
Rajakarier, noting that the
group continues to look for
opportunities to add to its
portfolio of 26 hotels in
Africa. “Our goal is to have
at least 50 hotels in different
locations in the next
five years,” he adds.
Specifically, MHG sees
significant opportunity
to launch its Tivoli brand
because of the link between
the brand’s origin in Portugal
and former Portuguese
colonies on the continent.
Five hotels in Southern
Africa were rebranded to
MHG’s AVANI brand at the
beginning of July. The five
properties form part of
the portfolio in which MHG
invested a total of R679,5m
in its strategic partnership
with Sun International,
announced in August last
year.
The 212-key Zambezi Sun in
Zambia has been rebranded
to AVANI Victoria Falls Resort;
the 196-key Gaborone Sun in
Botswana has become AVANI
Gaborone Resort & Casino;
the 158-key Lesotho Sun and
105-key Maseru Sun, both in
Lesotho, have been rebranded
to AVANI Lesotho Hotel and
Casino and AVANI Maseru
Hotel respectively, and the
173-key Kalahari Sands in
Namibia has reflagged to
AVANI Windhoek Hotel and
Casino. The sixth property
in the portfolio, the Royal
Livingstone Resort, will not be
rebranded.
Dillip is positive about
MHG’s joint venture with
Sun International, saying
that as Sun International
places greater emphasis on
managing casino operations
and MHG’s core focus is on
hotel management, marketing
and distribution, there is
considerable opportunity for
more partnerships of this
nature in the future
