Kate

OVERVIEW Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers and as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa. It now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, which has a population of over 1.3 million. Spend any time in PE and you’ll know why it’s called...

OVERVIEW Durban might be seen as one of the major centres of tourism in South Africa, but it also has the country’s busiest port, along with a number of industries centred in the city. The municipality, which includes neighbouring towns, has a population of almost 3.5 million, making the combined municipality one of the biggest cities on the Indian Ocean...

OVERVIEW The ‘Mother City’ has the second-most populous urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg. As the seat of the Parliament of South Africa, it is also the legislative capital of the country. Looking at Cape Town’s major industries, the agriculture and manufacturing sectors have declined more recently, whilst finance, business services, transport and logistics have grown, reflecting the growth...

OVERVIEW Known as the “Jacaranda City” due to its thousands of pretty purple jacaranda trees, Pretoria is a city within the Tshwane metropole and the Gauteng province. Pretoria is a major commercial and important industrial centre. Its main industries are iron and steel works, copper casting, and the manufacture of automobiles, railway carriages and heavy machinery. Politically, the last 18...

Proflight Zambia has added a new mid-afternoon flight between Ndola and Lusaka to meet the additional demand spurred by its recent decision to lower fares. The airline’s new flight will be the fourth return flight per day that the airline operates on the route. Flight P00306 will leave Lusaka at 15h00, arriving in Ndola at 15h45, with P00307 returning from...

OVERVIEW The capital of South Africa’s smallest province, Gauteng, Johannesburg is where it all happens for the country’s business travellers. Not only is it the largest city in South Africa, but Johannesburg is also one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa’s three capital cities, it is the seat of the...

FCM Travel Solutions has announced it will launch a chatbot in the second half of 2018. Sam blends artificial intelligence with the expertise of FCM consultants to deliver personalised, relevant information to business travellers’ mobile devices. It is an interactive, travel-savvy and anticipatory “Smart Assistant for Mobile” that supports users with all aspects of travel via a conversational interface, by answering...

Avis has increased its presence in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal, with the announcement of the opening of a new branch in Port Shepstone, on the south coast. It shares premises with Avis Van Rental, which is situated at Unit 01 Oribi Park, Lind Road, off the N2 in Port Shepstone. The office has been operational since 1 January.

Etihad Airways today reaffirmed its commitment to Nigeria with the announcement of two additional weekly flights on the popular Abu Dhabi–Lagos route, taking it to a daily service. The new Tuesday and Thursday services will start on 1 May 2018. The route will continue to be operated by a two-class Airbus A330, with 22 Business Class seats and 240 in...

AviaDev, the African aviation conference, will take place in Cape Town in June. The networking event, which is entering its third year, initially took place in Kigali, alongside the African Hotel Investment Forum, and explored the link between aviation and hospitality development. The organisers for AviaDev expect to welcome 250-300 delegates and 30 airlines later this year. Bringing together airports, airlines, tourism...

The 171-room City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers Mall in Nairobi has opened its first phase of rooms and expects to be fully open by the end of February. Situated adjacent to the Two Rivers Mall in Runda, East Africa’s largest shopping mall and mixed-use development, the hotel is owned and operated by the City Lodge Hotel Group. It is the...

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has opened its second hotel in Dakar, Senegal. The Radisson Hotel Dakar Diamniadio is a 152-room hotel with a congress centre providing over 14,700m2 space for large-scale exhibitions, conventions and events. The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has 84 hotels and over 17,500 rooms in operation and under development across the African continent. The hotel features a range...