Tsogo Sun’s recent rebranding to Southern Sun is the beginning of a new era for the Southern African hospitality group.
After the separate listing of the hotel group in June 2019, it became clear that the gaming and hotel groups operate in different markets and it was decided that the joint use of the Tsogo Sun brand would end and the name Southern Sun be used for the hospitality side of the business. This is a very familiar brand to many people in the travel industry.
Great news for travel agents is that the familiar brand is now on Travelinfo, meaning that there is a wealth of information now available, hotel by hotel, to every travel agent in South Africa, right at their fingertips.
The rebrand was launched in May this year at Africa’s Travel Indaba, which returned after a two-year absence due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry.
With the group having navigated the worst of the pandemic, it says it is an ideal time to re-establish it as the leading hospitality group in the Southern hemisphere and draw on its rich 50-year history to embark on a new beginning and create optimism among employees, suppliers and guests, all of whom have supported it throughout the most devastating period in the group’s history.
For more than five decades, the group has played a role in shaping the hospitality landscape in South Africa and the broader African continent and now Southern Sun welcomes this new era with confidence in the future.
Southern Sun Hotels was created in 1969 as a partnership between Sol Kerzner and South African Breweries, initially opening with six hotels, including the Beverly Hills in Umhlanga. It evolved over the years, splitting off Sun International in 1983, but retaining an interest in Sun International until 2000.The Southern Sun Hotel Group merged in 2012, and renamed itself Tsogo Sun. This split into two divisions in 2019 – a gaming division and a hotel division. Now, Tsogo Sun Hotels has rebranded to Southern Sun.
