Cape Town’s African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel has created significant relationships with players in the wider production industry and adapted to meet film and photographic industry needs.

Local government and the private sector have identified film and photographic production services in the Western Cape as key players in the region’s economic growth, with significant potential.

Cape Town is seen as an attractive location for producers, advertising agencies, the modelling industry, and various behind-the-scene support services who help create the end-product, due to its beauty, favourable climate and low production costs compared with other countries.

Director of Sales, Marketing and Revenue Management for Protea Hotels by Marriott, Danny Bryer, says: “The industry generates millions of rands in revenue...and it has created thousands of permanent jobs, as well as many part-time jobs. Of great importance, too, is the positive spill-over for many other sectors, such as the accommodation and food sectors, transport, vehicle and equipment hire, among others.”

African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel has tailored its offering to meet the specific needs of this industry, explains Bryer. The hotel provides luxury accommodation, with the flexibility needed to accommodate the needs of the production industry.

“So, we may have a model with specific dietary requests, someone responsible for outfits and props that need particular storage facilities, and people who do not keep the usual workday hours and need to have their meals at unusual times – all of these are requirements that the management and staff of the hotel excel at delivering,” says Bryer.

Owner of Cape Town Productions, Gavin Levy says: “We are incredibly proud that an entire industry of suppliers has been created around the production model. From hair and make-up and model agencies to equipment rental companies. From catering companies to location companies, the list goes on extensively. The industry now generates in excess of R5 billion (€347m) before the multiplier, so actually injects in excess of R8 billion (€556m) into the economy. The industry employs in excess of 26 000 employees, and that figure too is without the multiplier being applied.”

GM of African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel, Douglas Allen, says it is difficult to quantify the additional tourism that comes from the film and photographic production industry, but there is definitely a trend where people who visit Cape Town for work purposes return for holidays with family members. He says the hotel experiences this directly when guests ask to book accommodation for their entire families after the work trip has come to an end.