Hospitality’s new benchmark: Sustainability

Southern Africa’s hospitality sector is being shaped by travellers who increasingly prioritise sustainability, along with growing pressure from water shortages and soaring energy costs.

Hotels across the country are grappling with how to make sustainability a lived, operational reality rather than a marketing claim. This was a key takeaway at the 2025 Hospitality Industry Think Tank, an annual event hosted by Dream Hotels and Resorts.

According to the company, the industry must turn principles into practice, ensuring sustainability is no longer a buzzword but the line between resilience and risk.

This view is reflected across the industry, as travellers increasingly question sustainability efforts that remain limited to corporate presentations or marketing materials. Tourists, particularly younger generations, are looking for visible actions such as food-waste reduction, linen reuse for same-stay guests, efficient water management, and genuine local partnerships that demonstrate real environmental commitment.

“Guests are incredibly perceptive,” says Reinhard Visser, chief of operations at Dream Hotels and Resorts. “They notice when the story we tell matches the reality they experience, from the cleaning products in their rooms to the food on their plates. That’s why we see sustainability not as a campaign, but as a daily discipline.”

Across the sector, this daily discipline is taking on new forms. The company says grow tunnels, kitchen gardens, and local sourcing are increasingly replacing long supply chains. Refurbishment waste is being managed more sustainably, with furniture restored or redirected to community projects instead of being discarded.

In several lodges and resorts, teams are removing invasive plant species, restoring natural vegetation, and adopting quieter game-viewing practices to protect ecosystems and improve the guest experience.

“When it comes to reducing carbon footprints, it’s important to consider who you’re buying from,” says Visser. We work with local farmers and artisans because that’s how the value stays in the community. Every transaction becomes part of a shared cycle of renewal.”

Water and energy security remain major operational risks, forcing hospitality businesses to rethink their infrastructure strategies. For many operators, resource efficiency, such as greywater systems and solar power, is becoming the only way to maintain profitability and guest comfort during periods of instability.

Sustainability beyond the environment

Sustainability was discussed as both a social and economic issue. A recurring theme at the Think Tank was the need for transformation and training to be integrated. South Africa’s tourism sector has the potential to drive inclusive growth, provided that empowerment efforts extend beyond regulatory compliance.

One Think Tank panellist, says: “Aiming for 51% ownership means little if that ownership doesn’t come with real decision-making power or the ability to grow.”

Creating opportunities for previously disadvantaged entrepreneurs to own, operate, and influence tourism assets will play a key role in determining the sector’s long-term sustainability.

In terms of workforce development, fragmented training systems and slow grant processes continue to limit access to hospitality jobs. Industry representatives have called for a co-ordinated training framework that directs learnerships to areas where they are most needed, particularly in rural and peri-urban regions that provide much of the tourism labour force.

Visser says: “We want to be remembered as the generation that didn’t just talk about change, but lived it. Every time we choose to reuse instead of replace, to source locally instead of import, or to repair instead of discard, we’re shaping the future of South African hospitality.”