SASHNI PATHER

03 July 2005

SOUTH Africa’s growing tourism trade with India has resulted in an R800-million hotel investment in the country.

The Mumbai-based Orchid Hotel Group, one of India’s fastest-growing chains, has reached an agreement with a local development company to build The Orchid Reef in Ormonde, south of Johannesburg’s city centre.

The development will comprise a four-star luxury hotel with 150 rooms and banqueting facilities for 300 people.

The move comes as SA Tourism aggressively woos India’s massive tourst market.

About four million Indians tra- velled out of their country in 2002, at least a third of whom for leisure. That figure jumped to six million last year.

Ebrahim Patel, the Gold Reef Towers MD and director of Orchid SA, said: "Young, well-educated, English-speaking and with high disposable incomes, the Indian middle class is globe-trotting.

"The Bollywood movie industry has contributed, in part, to this desire to visit destinations used

in movies. South Africa is high on the list, not only for Bollywood movie backdrops but also holiday visits."

He said Indian tourists who had heard of South Africa and seen its scenery in movies and advertisements were coming to South Africa by the plane-load.

"Last year more than 34000 Indian tourists visited SA. That was 24% more than in the previous year, and it’s projected to increase by 20% per annum.

"It was only time before an Indian hotel group set its sights on our country, and it makes sense, too.

"With the number of business and leisure visitors from India

and other parts of the world, we needed an operator that understands the needs of the inter-

national market and whose brand was well known in the target markets."

Indian Consul-General Suresh K Goel said economic links were growing rapidly and there was great potential in the tourism industry.

The chief economist at stock brokerage T-Sec, Mike Schussler, said the hotel would probably be completed by 2010, in time for the Soccer World Cup, resulting in positive effects on fixed and foreign direct investment.

"Long-term effects of having this kind of hotel will result in more adverts in the Indian media, leading to the arrival of more tourists. This will also impact positively on the second economy," he said.

Niranjan Limaye, the director of operations for the Africa region of ICICI Bank, which recently began operating in Johannesburg, said the disposable income of Indians was increasing and local tour oper-ators were targeting the upper and middle classes, who saw SA as an ideal holiday destination.

SA Tourism’s Didi Moyle said that they welcomed investments like that of the Orchid Group Hotel. The most obvious and immediate spin-offs were that they signal confidence in South Africa, and would create jobs and further grow the relationship between the countries, she said.

"For tourists travelling to a foreign country for the first time, it is important to know that you are staying at a brand of hotels you are familiar with in terms of service, standards and, especially in the Indian market, availability of high-quality vegetarian food."