Hilton Durban expected to reopen after Covid closure

The reopening of the five star hotel is expected to give KwaZulu-Natal’s battling tourism sector an influx of high end travellers

The eThekwini metro and the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) have welcomed the news that the Hilton Durban hotel is to open its doors “soon” after shutting in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, reintroducing five star accommodation to the city centre.

A source close to the hospitality industry, who asked not to be named, said the privately owned hotel was preparing to open in about four weeks’ time.

The Hilton Durban shut its doors in January 2021 after the Hilton group decided to close more than 1 000 of its hotels around the world because of a steep decline in revenue during the pandemic. 

In 2022, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said there were plans under way to re-open the hotel that year, but nothing happened. In January this year, city manager Musa Mbhele remarked during a council meeting that the city had plans to take over the hotel. This was in reference to a condition in the hotel’s title deed that it must operate as a five star establishment or the city could seek redemption.

A Hilton spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian on Tuesday that the group was  discussing the reopening of the hotel with the owner. “While no date is currently confirmed, we hope to begin welcoming guests back to the hotel soon.”

eThekwini municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said the municipality had a Covid-19 rates relief programme that had “contributed to enabling the hotel’s reopening”.

She said the reopening of the hotel, which has more than 300 rooms and is situated near the Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, will benefit the city’s tourism economy.

“The reopening will also strategically amplify the city’s business case when bidding for national and international conferences to host. The convenient accessibility is also an advantage in that for dignitaries and high security risk patrons, there is no long-distance travel with all business travel purpose facilities within easy reach.”

Fedhasa East Coast chairperson Brett Tungay said the reopening of the hotel would mostly benefit the city’s business travellers and the convention centre.

“It is crucial that the [convention centre] has high end accommodation attached to it for the VIP delegations that attend conferences there,” he said.

He added that the closure of the hotel had probably had a negative effect on a few events in the city in terms of access to high end accommodation, but added that KwaZulu-Natal’s tourism sector had been so badly depressed over the past three to four years that the absence of its rooms had not been noticeable.

The sector was still attempting to recover from the pandemic, the floods in 2022 and the July 2021 riots as well as municipal strikes, E coli pollution in the rivers and beaches and the struggle to provide waste water treatment, Tungay said.

“Some 89% of the province is not affected by those things but when Durban sneezes the rest of the province catches a cold. We were affected in the Drakensberg when the beaches were closed in Durban, our occupancy was down even though we are not close to the beach. We are still trying to turn that around,” he said.
“We had an incredibly good travel indaba this year with positive feedback but elections create uncertainty. KZN has such a negative perception to try and beat back.”