Hilton Hotel, Photo: Liz Comins
eThekwini metro and the Hospitality Federation of South Africa (Fedhasa) have welcomed the news that the Hilton Durban hotel will reopen “soon” after being closed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reintroducing a five-star hotel to the city centre.
A source close to the hospitality industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the privately owned hotel is preparing to open within about four weeks.
The Hilton Durban closed in January 2021 following the Hilton Group's decision to close more than 1,000 hotels worldwide due to a sharp decline in revenue during the pandemic.
In 2022, eThekwini Mayor Mtsholisi Kaunda said plans were afoot to reopen the hotel that year, but nothing happened. In January this year, Mayor Musa Mbele told city council the city had plans to take over the hotel because a condition was written into the hotel's title deed that it must be operated as a five-star hotel or the city could seek to buy it back.
A Hilton spokesperson said: Mail & Guardian On Tuesday, the group said it was in discussions with the owner about reopening the hotel, saying: “While no date has been confirmed at this time, we hope to be able to welcome guests back to the hotel in the near future.”
Ethekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the city has a COVID-19 fee relief programme which “has helped to reopen the hotels”.
She said the reopening of the hotel, which has more than 300 rooms and is located near the Albert Luthuli International Conference Centre, would benefit the city's tourism economy.
“The reopening will also strategically strengthen the city's business case in attracting domestic and international conferences. Ease of access will also benefit VIPs and high security risk users as they will not have to travel long distances as all business travel facilities will be within easy reach.”
Fedusa East Coast chairman Brett Tanguay said the reopening of hotels would primarily benefit the city's business travellers and convention centre.
“The important thing is, [convention centre] “The hotel will also have luxury accommodation for VIP delegates attending the conference,” he said.
He added that the hotel closures may have had a negative impact on some events in the city in terms of access to luxury accommodation, but added that the tourism sector in KwaZulu-Natal had been in such a downturn over the past three to four years that the shortage of rooms was not noticeable.
The industry was still recovering from the pandemic, the 2022 floods, and the July 2021 riots and municipal strikes. E. coli Tungay said pollution of rivers and coasts and difficulties in treating wastewater were problems.
“About 89 per cent of the province is not affected by these things but when Durban sneezes the rest of the province catches a cold. When Durban's beaches were closed the Drakensberg was also affected. Even though we are far from the beaches, overnight stays went down. We are still trying to turn this around,” he said.
“This year the Travel Indaba has been incredibly strong and there has been positive feedback, but the elections have created uncertainty and KZN is looking to dispel that negative perception.”