Sol Kerzner is back in SA with big plans to shake-up the tourist industry. Julian Rademeyer spoke to him

Sun king Sol Kerzner is back in South Africa and breaking new ground with a luxury R900-million resort that is being built in Cape Town.

One&Only Cape Town will boast sweeping views of Table Mountain and the city’s harbour, three exclusive 600-metre square residential penthouses and two man-made islands — one with a state of-the-art spa and the other with heat treatment areas, pools and a “tranquil meditative relaxation zone”.

The 130-key hotel complex is expected to open its doors in the last quarter of 2009. Situated at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, it will overlook the marina.

The design will have a “contemporary” feel while “drawing heavily on Africa’s culture and heritage”.

On the dining front, the hotel will boast the signature Japanese cuisine of internationally renowned chef Nobu Matsuhisa — “with a few South African twists”.

The project began to take shape four years ago but stalled when the V&A Waterfront “ran into a spot of bother” with the City of Cape Town and “got entangled in litigation”, Kerzner said this week.

He believes the resort will not only shake-up South Africa’s hospitality industry but will also attract a new market of “upper- end” tourist.

“I think it does have quite a significant impact. When people come out to this part of the world, they are not just going to go to Cape Town. At the upper-end of the market it will be beneficial not only to Cape Town, but it will be beneficial to the other logical destinations that we have in SA.”

Kerzner said the decision to build the resort in Cape Town reflects his faith in the country’s burgeoning tourism industry.

“I was always a great optimist about the potential for tourism in South Africa. I remember, not long ago, the big deal for Satour was to crack one million tourists a year. I’m told that is now history. It is very exciting.”

Last year, 8.4 million tourists visited the country.

At 72, the hotel and casino tycoon has a “beautiful, wonderful wife” and is “busier than ever”. He and wife Heather, 38, who live in London, have been together since 1999. It is his fourth marriage and her second.

Despite a heart-bypass operation last November, Kerzner shows no signs of slowing down.

By 2010 he hopes to have another four new luxury resorts up and running — in Morocco, Zanzibar, Cost Rica and The World in Dubai, a man-made archipelago of 300 islands in the shape of a world map.

But his achievements these days are tinged with sadness. A year ago, his son and heir Butch, died in a helicopter crash while surveying potential development sites in the Dominican Republic.

Unveiling plans for the new Cape Town resort this week, Kerzner said: “Obviously things for me will never be quite the same.”

The expansion of Kerzner International’s luxury hotel portfolio and the rollout of the One&Only brand was initially driven by Butch Kerzner.

His son’s death forced Sol back to the helm of the Kerzner International group.

Now, he says, he can’t imagine retiring to the seaside.

“We are busier than we ever have been in terms of all the new developments. Obviously I can’t be moving forward with all that and — in the back of my mind — thinking about when I’m going to step back and go play on the beach”.

Kerzner’s luxury One&Only brand currently has six resorts in its stable — in the Bahamas, Dubai, the Maldives, Mauritius and Mexico.

Announcements of new developments have been coming thick and fast recently.

On Friday, briefing journalists at the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg, Kerzner unveiled his Cape Town plans. This came after Dubai World — a leading international holding company with 50 000 employees in more than 100 cities around the globe — announced on Wednesday that it was partnering Kerzner in developing a 150-million resort and spa retreat at Muyuni Beach in Zanzibar.

And in August, Kerzner International announced plans to build a One&Only resort in Cacique, Costa Rica.

For nearly four decades, Kerzner has been turning fantasy into reality.

Launched in 2002, the One&Only chain has won accolades from Conde Nast and Forbes magazines, and honours at the World Travel Awards.

One&Only sells itself as a “collection of the world’s finest resorts, each individually designed and crafted, inspired by its own supreme location”.

Travellers can sample “remote island retreats, enchanting palaces and contemporary haut chic”, according to the promotional material.

Sunday Times