R1bn makeover a sure bet for Sun City

04 December 2016 - 02:00 By ADELE SHEVEL
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In the 1980s and early '90s, Sun City was the place people went to experience what they weren't allowed to in South Africa.

Beset with bans and laws and restrictions, millions of South Africans, most of them white, shrugged off the repressive climate and headed to the multiracial pleasure palace in the apartheid homeland Bophuthatswana - where they got to see risqué dance extravaganzas, watch adult movies, see superstars perform and have a flutter at the gambling tables.

After the first democratic elections in 1994, homelands were abolished and the previously "forbidden fruit" they offered could be found almost anywhere in South Africa.

Casinos were within easy reach, and competition and fresh offerings left the resort floundering . Perceived at its zenith as a "mini Vegas", the entertainment destination has spent years trying to regain its former glory.

"It ran a wonderful race for many years and then it became obsolete in many respects," said Sun International chief operating officer Rob Collins.

Speaking this week at the official relaunch of the resort after its five-year, R1-billion revamp, he acknowledged that the resort was in desperate need of investment to reinvent itself .

Situated in a volcanic crater, Sun City opened in 1979 and in its first year of operation attracted 300,000 visitors.

In 2013, the resort attracted 1.36million visitors. In 2014, that figure fell to 957000, before bouncing back slightly to 993000 last year. This year, 961000 people have visited the resort and, with December fully booked, the visitor number for the year is set to easily pass the million mark.

Sun City has always made an operating profit, but with big capital expenditure programmes this has impacted the bottom line, said Collins.

"And it's profitable."

A vital aspect of the revamp is the resort's strategy to increase its share of the lucrative conference and business market.

Conference and meeting rooms have been upgraded and kitted out with technology.

Areas of the resort previously reserved for daytime and leisure visitors - including the Valley of the Waves - are being redesigned for easy transformation into evening venues for business conferences.

Sun International has also launched its Sun Park concept - a space that can easily be adapted to the particular needs of businesses, and can host lifestyle events, music festivals and corporate launches.

The concept is being rolled out at Sun International's other casino resorts.

The original Sun City hotel has been revamped and renamed the Soho Hotel. It is open 24/7, and has a casino, nightclubs, burlesque shows, restaurants and the SA Hall of Fame featuring sports icons.

Sun Central now boasts boardrooms and a range of new casual dining facilities to take the place of tired brands.

The top-end Palace of the Lost City has not yet been fully spruced up, but the mid-range Cabanas and popular self-catering Vacation Club have been revamped.

"It's a work in progress," Collins said.

Michael Farr, general manager for brand and communications at Sun International, said the resort was now more attractive to families, gamblers, convention visitors and niche tourists, including adrenaline-seekers, ecotourists and millennials.

The value of the rand did not appear to have any real effect on the visitor numbers, Farr said.

But visa restrictions that required visitors accompanied by minors to present unabridged birth certificates on entering the country had affected business.

"Were it not for the visa restrictions we would have had more visitors in 2015 and the first half of 2016," he said.

Sun City, the brainchild of one of South Africa's greatest business visionaries, Sol Kerzner, has a history coloured by controversy, including Kerzner's determination to break the UN-imposed cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa by offering big pay days to performing artists - including Queen, Elton John, Rod Stewart and Frank Sinatra - willing to use Sun City as a venue.

In August 1996, the ANC denied claims by Bantu Holomisa that it had accepted contributions from Kerzner in return for dropping bribery charges relating to a R2-million payment to former Transkei ruler Chief George Matanzima - who was ousted by Holomisa - to secure sole gambling rights in the "bantustan".

Nelson Mandela later confirmed that Kerzner had made donations to the ANC that only he had known about.

In 1995, just as a police investigation into the alleged bribery of Matanzima in 1987 drew to a close, Kerzner severed his links with his South African business and moved to the US, where he opened the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, a year later.

Melanie Millin-Moore, who was Kerzner's PR dynamo for 36 years, said: "Sun City brought people together during apartheid. I think of him as a forerunner of bringing people together from all walks of life. They sat together, ate together and never had a single incident, which was amazing."

Sun International's R4-billion Time Square casino and hotel development in Menlyn Maine, Tshwane, is due to open in April. It will be the second-largest casino in South Africa after GrandWest, with 2000 slot machines and 60 tables, and the biggest development in the industry since GrandWest Casino was built in Cape Town in 2000.

shevela@sundaytimes.co.za

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