SUDIPTA DEV – Durban
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| Michael Pownall |
Taj Cape Town that is entering the third year of its operation, after a rather difficult start, is a hit with domestic travellers with occupancy levels having doubled in the last 12 months. Majority of the guests are South Africans followed by those from the US, India, UK and Germany. “Most of our guests do not know about the Taj Group of Hotels. Probably 25-30 per cent of the guests will be familiar with the brand and within that all are Indians,” said Michael Pownall, general manager, Taj Cape Town.
He attributes the success of the property in a country like South Africa to the fact that guests have quickly understood that Taj Cape Town represents a very good leading luxury hotel company. “We have seen this in our business levels and the repeat guests that is for us hugely important. As we go into our third year in operation we see all our markets growing substantially this year way over 10-20 per cent,” stated Pownall. He believes that the property will be among those hotels attracting the highest number of repeat guests in Cape Town.
Taj Cape Town has seven conference rooms suited for board meetings, small incentives, small private lunches and dinners. “We are close to the Parliament in South Africa that works six months in Pretoria and six months in Cape Town. So we have a lot of corporate and government affiliations, but Cape Town is not a business city. It’s a leisure and incentive city,” he explained, remembering to add that there is an exoticness about the Taj hotels that appeal to people as all the properties are not the same.
