News:Sun International wins Blue Train bid

TRANSNET has chosen
Sun International as the
winning bidder to develop
and implement a marketing
strategy for The Blue Train that
could see Transnet building
new state-of-the-art train sets
and developing new routes.
In April, Transnet invited
bidders to submit proposals
to partner in developing and
piloting a marketing strategy
for The Blue Train for an initial
period of up to 18 months.
The partnership agreement
was signed by ceo of SA
Tourism, Thulani Nzima;
Graeme Stephens, ce of Sun
International; and Siyabonga
Gama, group ce of Transnet,
on September 8 at Pretoria
Station.
The partnership hinted that
there could be alignment of
accommodation and train
packages but it is only in
the preliminary phase. “We
envision more trains and new
routes, however we are not in
a position to say how much
is going to be spent. At this
stage, we have agreed to work
together,” Siyabonga said.
“Our tourism market is very
similar to the one Transnet
is trying to target,” said
Graeme. “Approximately 60%
of our room nights are sold
to international guests and
we have a strong presence
in the core, traditional source
markets for tourism for SA and
a presence in the emerging
markets.”
“If you can have a luxury
product like The Blue Train
and luxury accommodation
such as the range of Sun
International’s products,
our competitiveness in the
international space is going to
be better,” said Thulani.