One Mark, Infinite Journeys defines the essence of Newmark Hotels & Reserves

Newmark Hotels & Reserves — a specialist management company of African luxury hotels and reserves — has reached a significant point in its growth with 26 properties currently under its management. As the group continues expanding its presence across the continent, Newmark has launched a core campaign that captures the brand’s essence and the company’s unwavering focus: One Mark, Infinite Journeys.

Founded in 2007 by Neil Markovitz, Newmark has established itself as a trusted managing company with high standards and a discerning partner that has curated an upscale portfolio of properties — all unified under one brand that is well-regarded by industry professionals and travellers from around the world and local destinations.

Since inception, Newmark has sought to acquire or take on the management of properties that possess something completely unique and that will exceed guests’ expectations. With that, Newmark specifically maintains the “fingerprint” — the unique characteristics — of every property in its portfolio, delivering fresh and bespoke experiences for guests at each destination, while ensuring a consistent measure of service and warm hospitality throughout.

The first-ever property to be incorporated in the Newmark portfolio was the Victoria & Alfred Hotel. Significantly, almost two decades prior to Newmark’s inception, Markovitz was responsible, together with his late father, Leon Markovitz and the late Abe Swersky, for the conceptualisation and development of the Victoria & Alfred Hotel in 1990 – the first hotel to be opened in the V&A Waterfront and one that remains an iconic establishment today.

Later in its inaugural year, Newmark added another nearby boutique hotel to its portfolio and, within the four years that followed, continued to grow its footprint in Cape Town with two more property additions.

The year 2013 marked another milestone for Newmark as it expanded its presence into the Greater Kruger National Park, in Limpopo, with the addition of its first private game reserve to the portfolio. The next year, Newmark established a footprint in Mpumalanga with yet another private game reserve coming under its management.

In 2016, Newmark crossed international borders and included a beachside lodge in Zanzibar, Tanzania to its portfolio. Locally, it also transformed its original head office in the Waterfront precinct into a boutique hotel. In the years that followed, it continued growing its presence in Cape Town, with another new property, and further afield in the Great Karoo, with the addition of another private game reserve to the portfolio.

Newmark then entered the Mauritian market for the first time in 2020, with the acquisition of a luxury hotel. In 2021, it grew its footprint in South Africa by adding a “central stop-over” and corporate hotel in Johannesburg, Gauteng, as well as two more hotels in Cape Town to its portfolio.

The following year, Newmark once again grew its presence in the private game reserve space, with the addition of two lodges in a UNESCO-declared savannah biosphere in the Bela Bela, Waterberg region of South Africa, and furthered its reach in Mauritius with the acquisition of a beachside boutique hotel.

In 2023, Newmark again expanded its portfolio in Cape Town with the addition of a property on the southern slopes of Table Mountain, along with one in the nearby Winelands region. In the same year, the management company entered Lagos, Nigeria with the acquisition of a golf and country estate. Later, it acquired a second Winelands property — a boutique hotel set in Stellenbosch. And, in 2024, Newmark underpinned a new wellness retreat offering in the Greater Kruger National Park area.

Most recently, Newmark announced its imminent expansion into additional African regions, including a new build in Zimbabwe, near to the world-famous Victoria Falls, set to open in the last quarter of 2025. Furthermore, it added another South African property in the Greater Makalali Private Game Reserve, Limpopo — set to re-open after an extensive refurbishment in the last quarter of 2025 — to the portfolio and has begun another new build in Bwabwata National Park — scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2026.

“We have seen significant growth in less than two decades. I am incredibly proud of my team, the strength of the current Newmark portfolio and the growth we continue to see. Uniquely, we have remained focused on the initial goal of delivering a consistent standard of excellence and authentic hospitality at each of our properties, while ensuring that every destination within the portfolio offers guests a distinct experience. It is with this ethos driving us that we celebrate the launch of One Mark, Infinite Journeys,” shares Markovitz.