Royal St Andrews Hotel appoints
Difford Louw as
Acting/Designate General Manager as from
01 March 2018
Difford Louw, currently the Royal St Andrews Hotel sales manager and a member of the senior leadership and management team, has been appointed Acting/Designate General Manager of the Royal St Andrews Hotel, as from 01 March 2018.
Wessel Benson, the incumbent general manager, will be departing at the end of February 2018 to take up a new general management and personal growth opportunity at a hospitality destination in Rwanda. Both Wessel and Difford have played key and instrumental roles in the growth of the hotel over the past three years. More recently over the past year, Wessel has been instrumental in building a strong, talented, committed and aligned senior leadership team with a shared vision and mission that has enabled and delivered positive year-on-year performance and growth.
The internal promotion and appointment of Difford Louw is aligned to and supports Martin Bekker’s vision for Port Alfred in terms of enabling economic growth of the town and area. Most importantly, this also includes the personal growth and development of its younger people. Coming from the area and schooled in Alicedale and Port Elizabeth, Difford has been a member of the hotel’s senior management team since the revamped hotel opened its doors in 2015.
Royal St Andrews Hotel owners Martin and Linda Bekker are delighted and excited about Difford’s internal promotion and appointment. Said Martin Bekker; “Linda and I are delighted and happy to see our dream for Port Alfred being realised through the internal promotion and appointment of Difford Louw to lead and manage this great team and hotel. To us this is enablement and empowerment at its very best. This is a great step forward.”
He continued “Linda and I thank Wessel Benson for all that he has done and for the excellent manner in which he has led and built the team and the business. We wish Wessel every success in Rwanda with his new appointment. In the same breath, we congratulate Difford Louw on his promotion and appointment, and wish Difford every success with continuing the journey of building the Royal St Andrews Hotel into a preferred local, national and international hospitality destination and iconic brand, supported by our appointed hotel management company, Mantis.”
Prepared by TWF Group
