Marriott Rewards Now Available Across Africa At All 100 Protea Hotels

Protea Joins Over 4,000 Marriott International Hotels Where Members Can Earn And Redeem

 Points For Global Travel

 Marriott Rewards, the award winning

 global hotel loyalty program, is being expanded to all Protea Hotels and African Pride Hotels 

across Sub-Saharan Africa, giving its 53 million members 100 more hotels where they can earn

 and redeem points.  Today's expansion follows an initial rollout of Marriott Rewards to 25 properties

 in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban and expands the program to Protea and African Pride

 hotels in Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi.

"Marriott Rewards members--our most loyal guests--are seeking travel experiences that empower 

them to pursue their passions. Marriott Rewards' expansion to include all Protea Hotels allows

 members to enjoy the benefits of loyalty when traveling to Africa, whether for business or leisure,"

 explains Mark Satterfield, Chief Operating Officer for Marriott International, Middle East & Africa and

 Marriott International's Business Leader for Protea Hotels. 

For individuals who travel around Africa, this is the first time an African hotel brand has offered

 loyalty points for domestic stays that can be redeemed for travel internationally. Protea Hotels

 is positioned in the moderate and upper moderate tier categories, with properties situated in

 key business centers and sought-after leisure destinations. Protea Hotels offers accommodation

 ideal for both business and leisure travelers, with modern design and a unique blend of local style

 and personal service.

Marriott Rewards points can be redeemed for hotel stays, as well as for a range of other benefits, 

such as air travel, frequent flyer miles, cruises, car rentals, and merchandise. In addition to earning 

points for their stays, Marriott Rewards members enjoy exclusive benefits, such as free Wi-Fi and

 mobile check-in and check-out through the Marriott Mobile app, as well as special  offers only

 available when booking direct on Marriott.com.

To learn more about Marriott Rewards, which is free to join, please visit: www.MarriottRewards.com.

About Marriott Rewards

Marriott Rewards is Marriott International's award-winning loyalty program spanning 16 brands and

 over 4,000 properties worldwide. Marriott Rewards is free to join and has no blackout dates and

 members can earn and redeem points at Marriott International properties around the world and at

 Marriott Rewards exclusive luxury partner The Ritz-Carlton®.  Members can also redeem points

 for frequent flyer miles, cruises, car rentals, merchandise and more. By making rewards accessible

 with a modern, easy approach, Marriott Rewards continues to be a leader in the industry. Marriott

 Rewards has won the Freddie Award for "Best Hotel Rewards Program in the Americas" eight years

 in a row and the 2011 and 2010 Frequent Travel Award for "Best Hotel Rewards Program." In

 addition, the program has been named best hotel rewards program by the readers of U.S. News

 & World Report, About.com, Business Traveler, Global Traveler, Executive Travel and

 BusinessWeek magazines. To enroll and for more information about Marriott Rewards, guests

 can visit MarriottRewards.com.

About Protea Hotels

Protea Hotels is Africa's leading hotel brand and has a footprint of more than 100 properties

 throughout South Africa and seven other African countries, including Zambia, Nigeria, Namibia,

 Ghana and Uganda amongst others. Each hotel is uniquely different in character and the

 collection ranges from urban accommodation to country retreats, all in the 3 and 4-star markets.

 Protea Hotels is the winner of 2 World Travel Awards for Best Hotel Group in Africa, winner of 3

 Sunday Times Markinor Top Hotel Brand Awards, the winner of 6 Coolest Hotel Group awards

 in the Sunday Times Generation Next surveys and the winner of the Ask Africa South African

 Customer Service Award 2013 and Icon Brand 2015. The hotel group was bought by Marriott

 International in April 2014 and forms part of Marriott's global brand portfolio made up of 19

 brands that operate more than 4 300 hotels in 81 countries. Follow us on twitter @ProteaHotels

About Marriott International:

Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is a global leading lodging company based

 in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, with more than 4,300 properties in 85 countries and territories. 

 Marriott International reported revenues of nearly $14 billion in fiscal year 2014. The company

 operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts under 19 brands,

 including: The Ritz-Carlton®, BVlgari®, EDITION®, JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection® 

Hotels, Renaissance® Hotels, Marriott Hotels®, Delta Hotels and Resorts®, Marriott Executive 

Apartments®, Marriott Vacation Club®, Gaylord Hotels®, AC Hotels by Marriott®, Courtyard®,

 Residence Inn®, SpringHill Suites®, Fairfield Inn & Suites®, TownePlace Suites®, Protea

 Hotels® and Moxy Hotels®. Marriott has been consistently recognized as a top employer and

 for its superior business ethics. The company also manages the award-winning guest loyalty

 program, Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® program, which together surpass

 54 million members. For more information or reservations, please visit our website at www.marriott.com

Foodie Travelers Explore The Cuisines Of Angola, Botswana And DRC

For many travelers, food is the central focus of their journeys. They are often called “foodie travelers,” and enjoy partaking in the various types of food found in the myriad of cultures around the world. How else does one get to take in and savor the culture of a place than through an experience of food that involves all the senses? Hearing the sizzle coming from the kitchen, smelling the aromas of the dishes being prepared, seeing the plates of delightful food being served, tasting the delectable flavors, and in many cases, eating without utensils and reveling in the feeling of picking up one’s food and licking one’s fingers like a delighted child.

The fifteen countries of Southern Africa - Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – offer a wide variety of delicious dishes for the foodie traveler to enjoy. Today, we explore some of the foods of Angola, Botswana, and the Democratic Republic of Congo

Angola

Luanda has a rich cuisine, which draws from both European and African influences. With its coastal location, seafood is extremely popular, with prawns and white fish such as tilapia used in many recipes. Meat is also prized, with chicken, beef and pork most commonly available.

Angola was a Portuguese colony for centuries, so it isn’t surprising that Portuguese cuisine has significantly influenced Angolan cuisine. Funge and pirão are very common dishes, and can be eaten with fish, chicken, and beans. Funge de bombo, more common in northern Angola, is a paste or porridge of cassava (also called manioc or yuca), and is made from cassava flour and has a gelatinous consistency. Pirão, yellow in color and similar to polenta, is made from corn flour and is more common in the south. Fubá is the term for the flour that is used to make either funge or pirão, and is also used to make angu, a Brazilian polenta. Both foods are bland but filling and are often eaten with sauces and juices or with a spicy condiment called gindungo.

Chicken moamba is made with a palm paste, okra, garlic, and palm oil hash or red palm oil sauce, and is often served with rice and funge. Both funge and moamba de galinha have been considered the national dish. A variant dish of moamba de galinha, muamba de ginguba, uses ginguba, a peanut sauce instead of palm paste.

In the countryside, a box of one hundred mangos sells for around 10 dollars. But by the time the fruit has reached Luanda, a single mango can be 5 dollars. This means a basic meal for two people can easily cost around 50 dollars. Local beer remains the exception to the high food prices, with bottles at less than a dollar.

Botswana

Botswana’s traditional local dishes use sorghum or maize as their basis, prepared as a porridge (bogobe) or pap. This staple is accompanied by servings of meat such as seswaa (a salted stewed beef) or vegetable sauces such as wild spinach or pumpkin.

Other popular local dishes include serobe (made from goat, sheep, or cow lungs and intestines) and recipes which use imported bread-flour such as matemekwane (dumplings) and magwinya, dough balls deep-fried in fat (known as fat cakes).

Melons are popular in Botswana. Local varieties include the lerotse or lekatane and the watermelon. This is believed to stem from the wild tsamma melons of the Kalahari. A wide variety of vegetables and other crops are grown commercially, including beans and groundnuts/peanuts.

Beer is a popular drink in Botswana, with cloudy local varieties fermented from sorghum, maize, millet, and wild fruits or berries. But beware! Some home brews have an extremely high alcohol content.

Democratic Republic of Congo

The staple food in DR Congo is cassava. This root vegetable is often ground into a paste and served with plantains, fish or bushmeat. Grubs and caterpillars are also collected to provide protein. Nuts and fruit are widely grown, and oranges and bananas are the most commonly available fruits.

Congolese meals often consist of a starchy ingredient, along with vegetables and meat in the form of a stew. The starch can come in the form of a paste or mash made of cassava and/or corn flour, called fufu or ugali. When eaten, the fufu is rolled into golf ball-sized balls and dipped into the spicy stew—often an indentation is made with the thumb in order to bring up a thimbleful of sauce.

A type of fermented bread, kwanga, made from cassava, is commercially produced throughout the country. Lituma is a popular plantain dish made from mashed plantains which are formed into balls and baked. Sweet potatoes are prepared in a similar way, and mixed with roasted peanuts in some parts of the country. Rice is often mixed with beans.

To accompany these starchy ingredients, green vegetables such as cassava leaves, tshitekutaku (a spinach-like plant) and okra are often added. Mushrooms, especially prized among the Luba people, are often seen as a substitute for meat in times of shortage. Though actual vegetarianism is unknown, most meals are eaten without meat due to its high price.

Fish are plentiful along the River Congo, its tributaries, and various lakes; and are baked, boiled, or fried for immediate consumption as well as smoked or salted when preserved. Markets often sell ready-to-eat peppered fish baked in banana leaves. Goat is the most widely consumed meat, and Mwambe is a common way of cooking chicken with peanut sauce. Edible insects such as grasshoppers and caterpillars are eaten, which tend to have a nutty flavor.

Sauces to mix with the available ingredients can be made with tomatoes, onions, and local aromatic herbs. Vegetable oil, together with salt, hot red chile pepper, and sweet green pepper are used to impart extra flavor. These spices are less frequently used in the far south.

Palm trees are grown in some parts and their fermented sap is used to make palm wine.

About Retosa

The Regional Tourism Organization of Southern Africa (RETOSA) is a Southern African Development Community (SADC) institution responsible for tourism growth and development. In part, the aims of RETOSA are to increase tourist arrivals to the region through sustainable development initiatives, improved regional competitiveness, and effective destination marketing. The organization works together with Member States’ tourism ministries, tourism boards, and private sector partners. For more information about RETOSA, go to www.retosa.co.za