After a rigorous selection process, finalists for the 3rd Hospitality Investment Awards have been announced. The awards form part of the line up for the annual Hospitality Investment Conference Africa (HICA) scheduled to take place on 4th to 6th November 2009 at the Sandton Sun hotel in Johannesburg.

The CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), conveners of the conference, Ms. Mmatati Marobe maintains that the vision for the awards is to acknowledge the work and achievement of the people within the industry while showcasing their products and services.

This year, the award was made up of four categories, viz: - Best New Hotel Investment; Tourism Leadership; Excellence in Tourism Reporting and Mover and Shaker.

In the category of Best New Hotel Investment Award, the spot for the winner is been contested by Protea Hotel Willow Lake in Bloemfontein, the Radisson Blu Sandton and Mapungubwe Hotel in the Homburg CBD. These were among the nominated projects which are thought to have set new benchmarks in the industry in terms of capital investment, innovation and operational practices.

Kurt Ritter, President and CEO of the Rezidor Hotel Group; Arthur Gillis, MD of the Protea Hotel Group and Adrian Gardiner, CEO of the Mantis Group are contesting the award for the Tourism Business Leadership.

For the Mover and Shaker Award category, the finalists are Andrew McLachlan, Vice-President of Business Development at Rezidor Hotel Group and Craig Drysdale, GM Charter Division at Springbok Atlas.

Due the slow response from the travel and tourism journalism, the 2009 award of Excellence in Tourism Reporting received less qualifying nominations. The finalist in this category is Now Media’s, Kate Els.

All nominations were subjected to a stringent selection criterion and given that the judging panel was made up of a team of experts from within the tourism and hospitality sectors, nominees did not have it easy. Grant Thornton Strategic Solutions carried out the difficult task of collating, assessing the nominations and facilitating the selection of the finalists and winners.