New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) The City Lodge Hotels Limited, one of the major South African hotel chains, is all set to enter the Indian market for the first time, making Mumbai its entry point.
Operating 45 hotels in the entire South African region, the chain has hotels in three-, four- and five-star range. In India, it plans to set up hotels in the three- or four-star range.

Rose Bischoff, assistant sales manager of Tours and Incentives said: “India is a growing economy and unlike most of Europe which had been much affected by the global meltdown, India was not. We see a good market here, therefore we plan to set up our first hotel here very soon”.

“Over the next two years, we are planning to set up one of our hotels in Mumbai and then Pune,” Bischoff told IANS at the South African tourism roadshow in the capital Thursday.

According to Medha Sampat, country manager for South African tourism, while the number of South Africans coming to India has always been good, the number of Indians travelling to South Africa has also been steadily increasing over the years.

All of this, therefore, projects India as an ideal destination for South African travel and trade industry, Sampat said.

“From the period between January and October 2009, more than 52,000 Indians travelled to South Africa. The tourist arrivals from India is growing at the rate of 18 percent on a yearly basis, which is quite impressive,” Sampat told IANS.

Encouraged by the growing market, efforts are being made to push this number up even further.

“We are pushing luxury and adventure tourism, besides wildlife which has always been a focus. However, our target group is not so much the first time traveller who would rather go to Malaysia or some other shopping destination. We are aiming at seasoned travellers,” Sampat said.

“Although Europe and the US continue to remain the biggest tourist markets in South Africa for international arrivals, India has overtaken China to be the biggest market in Asia,” she added.

Also the fact that the Taj group will be setting up its first hotel in Cape Town in another two weeks is another boost.

“The Taj groups will be the first Indian hotel chain to set up their hotel in South Africa. After Cape Town, they will go to Durban and Johannesburg. Then Jet Airways also have started their service to the region,” Sampat said.

While places like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Sun City are the most popular tourist destinations in South Africa, East and North Cape are being developed as the new hot spots.