New hope for Fish
Mantis Collection in caretaker role at resort
NDLAMBE’S iconic Fish River Resort will soon reopen its doors to domestic and international guests after Eastern Cape-based Mantis Collection secured a one-year caretaker contract of the former Sun International hotel from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR).
Sun International, who owned the building and ran the facility, had been in negotiations with national government for some time.
Fish River Sun opened its doors in March 1989 and its casino brought multitudes of visitors to the Sunshine Coast, but after its gambling licence was transferred to Sun Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth just 10 years later in May 1999, the hotel has taken strain.
Ongoing land claims made by three AmaXhosa groups – the AmaZizi, Tharfield and Prudhoe – saw the company close the establishment at the end of November last year.
TotT wrote a number of previous articles on the land claims.
Mantis Collection director and former Port Alfred resident Carl Haller received the keys to the establishment at an informal handover held at the Fish River Resort on Friday.
Sun Boardwalk general manager Mike van Vuuren, who was also the former general manager of the Fish River Sun, handed over the keys to DRDLR acting chief director of the commission in the Eastern Cape Zama Memela, who, in turn, handed them over to Haller.
“This is a one-year caretaker contract,” Haller explained. “We would ultimately like to take a marketing and managing contract for a longer period but, at this time, we need to secure the property and slowly bring back some of the popular facilities which was available in the past.
“It is crucial that we uplift the local community through skills development, as well as the golfing academy,” he said.
Haller believes Mantis’s proposal, its experience with boutique hotel management, the company’s founding pillars of education and conservation, together with its associations and partnerships around the world and in South Africa, helped to clinch the deal for which several other bidders had competed.
Stenden South Africa, an international branch campus of NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences based in the Netherlands, is also on-board to provide staff training and other foundations and Mantis Collection partners will look at the other aspects and facilities of the hotel.
The Mantis Collection, led by Adrian Gardiner, who is also chairman of the board at Stenden South Africa, is firmly based in the Eastern Cape, with its head office in Port Elizabeth and marketing and management contracts with several hotels both locally and overseas.
“Mantis wishes to leverage its relationships with its local and international partners to develop a strategy that ensures the sustainability of the asset going forward,” Haller said.
“We will be opening our doors to guests shortly, along with the golf course and other facilities,” he said, explaining that this would allow them to set up local staff training – with many of the Fish River Sun staff retrenched last year being re-hired – and prove their ability to make the hotel sustainable.
He was bullish about Mantis’s association with overseas foundations that could help revitalise the resort.
“The facility is a huge asset to the Sunshine Coast region and it certainly fits in with tourism strategy in developing this region into a world-class destination, and a product, such as Fish River Resort – with its Gary Player-designed golf course, is a crucial and vital part of the strategy going forward,” Haller said.
“When we’re up and running, we will sponsor the development of local golfers and establish a golfing academy here,” he said.
“For now we will be the caretaker of the facility as we carefully put our plans into action. Government needs to be commended on the process put in place which has made this possible.”
Haller paid particular interest in the development of local communities and conservation, saying this was very important to the Mantis Collection and Gardiner’s vision for the resort.
Once the land claim issue is resolved and ownership of the land is finalised, Haller said he wanted the hotel to benefit the affected communities.