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Web Exclusive: Foreigners buying up local guesthouses
October 20, 2009
A busy market in the sale of guesthouses to foreign executives in search of a more relaxed lifestyle in this country is not due entirely to the prospect of hosting the soccer World Cup next year, according to Joop Demes, chief executive of Pam Golding Hospitality.
He cited the example of Paul Langeveld, a former executive of a large international catering company, and his wife Marjolein, a former sales executive of Coca-Cola, who started a guest house in the Western Cape seven years ago after a holiday in the area.
Since then they have opened two guest houses in Somerset West and sold them at a profit, after building them up to be successful, and have opened their third, and largest, last week.
They come from the Netherlands, like Demes and his colleague Peter Bruil, a director of Pam Golding Lodges and Guesthouses, who said:"We see interest from a wide variety of European countries but predominantly from Holland, Germany, Italy, England, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland. The economic crisis in Europe has made the outlook for many corporates bleak and with South Africa in the global spotlight in 2010 former executives are taking the decision to own a guesthouse in this country."
Langeveld said he has sold his second guesthouse to a German investor and is busy developing his third backed by a consortium of Dutch investors.
His operations have so far brought R27 million in foreign investment into this country.
Each time he starts a new operation he takes his original local staff with him. He employed 10 people in his second guest house and the new one will require 15.
Each new operation has also provided work for local building contractors.
He said he was confident that South Africa was about to realise its tremendous tourism potential as a result of the exposure from hosting the World Cup.
“I don't think most people realise what a powerful aid to marketing this country it will be and the tremendous number of tourists who will come here afterwards as a result of the exposure it will bring."
Most of his guests are from Holland and from South Africa's main source market for tourism, the UK and Germany.
The seasonality of the Cape Town market has been described as a drawback and efforts are being made to attract more visitors in the winter months, with three airlines from the Middle East now flying in all year round bringing passengers from all over the world.
But Langeveld said: "We have a good, long, season and although we do have beautiful weather at times in the winter it can also be cold and wet in the Western Cape and I do not try to attract visitors from Europe at that time.” - I-Net Bridge
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