Protea Hotel Kimberley has expanded by 26 rooms and added a new conference venue that can accommodate up to 120 delegates.
This increases the hotel’s accommodation capacity by more than 25%, and more than doubles the size of its conferencing facilities. All work has been completed.
The hotel, which is only seven years old, is situated right alongside the world-famous Big Hole.
The substantial expansion of the relatively new hotel was undertaken because of the massive demand for hospitality services as SA’s secondary economic nodes grow, says Danny Bryer, Director of Sales, Marketing and Revenue for Protea Hotels.
The extensive construction and remodelling work that was undertaken at Protea Hotel Kimberley includes:
- The addition of 26 new rooms – two full suites and 24 king-size rooms, which brings to 120 the total number of rooms in the hotel;
- The extension of its restaurant to cater for increased guest numbers;
- The updating and refreshing of the décor in all its public areas; and
- The addition of a large new conference room suitable for 120 delegates, leading to its own Big Hole viewing deck.
Bryer says: “The hotel has been operating at consistently high occupancy for some time, which demonstrated the strength of the brand and the demand for accommodation in the area. The Protea Hotel Kimberley improvements are not merely cosmetic; they were necessary in order to accommodate this growth.”
Business travel is the main driver of hospitality growth in the Kimberley area specifically and the Northern Cape generally, and Bryer says this is a consistent trend in the country’s secondary economic nodes.
But while business travel does dominate, Kimberley is also a tourist destination; particularly for those interested in the area’s rich mining history. The town offers The Big Hole, war routes, museums and the historic mining village.
