What makes Protea Hotels different?
The fact that we are a local brand sets us aside from the other groups. We also tend to have a broader diversity of hotels. And we funded all our growth through cash flow which is a very different approach. What is your vision for the company’s future? We see ourselves as a South African hotel group and we are building a lot of hotels in SA at the moment. We then see ourselves as an African regional player, and we are looking at countries in Africa that do not have hotels of substance. Many international brands fail in those countries because they have an international kind of arrogance. We tend to be an African operator, run by Africans, for Africans. We are also looking at taking part of our company global, but we’ll do that in a considered way. We will carve a small niche and attempt to get into that niche and work only there. We think we’ve got a brand and a concept that will work in that area. What challenges does Africa present? The main challenges are political – some African co
