Audrey D’Angelo
Despite the current economic difficulties, travel from the country’s main source markets for tourism and trips overseas by South Africans are growing this year, according to Michael Tollman, the chairman and chief executive of JSE-listed tourism conglomerate Cullinan Holdings.
The company is investing in recent acquisitions and looking for more, as well as building new offices and coach stations. Cullinan, which owns tourism group Thompson’s Travel and travel agency Pentravel, as well as coach operators Hylton Ross and iKapa, has R200 million available to pursue these plans without incurring any debt.
The company has been doing business in China for 10 years and opened new offices in Shanghai last year. Tollman saw prospects for huge growth in two-way travel between China and South Africa.
He also saw prospects for growth in South Africa’s traditional source markets in Britain, continental Europe and the US where, he said, people were tired of austerity and were travelling again. He had “confidence in the outlook for both inbound and outbound travel in South Africa”.
Tollman said he had anticipated the prospects for growth in tourism to South Africa as a result of the exposure it received when it hosted the 2010 Fifa World Cup and had prepared for it, although he had also foreseen the downturn that would follow in the months after the tournament.
“We have achieved good growth over the last three or four years in spite of the difficult trading conditions here and in some of our markets overseas and our profits last year were up by 60 percent. Travel from the US and Europe is continuing, but there are huge opportunities in China, where we have built a significant business.”
Developments it has carried out locally include a recently completed coach depot in the Salt River improvement area of Cape Town, with separate buildings for its two coach companies, Hylton Ross and iKapa. Both buildings were “green’’, with rainwater saved and used for washing the vehicles. Like its other coach depots, the buildings contain amenities such as a gym for the staff.
Cullinan acquired Hylton Ross first and iKapa later but decided not to combine them because both had established markets, with iKapa’s mainly among overseas tour operators.
It is also in the process of developing an office building for its tourism retail business on the edge of the historic Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town. Similar developments in other parts of South Africa include a coach depot in Centurion.
Cullinan shares closed unchanged at R1.36 yesterday.