You can’t change history

THE biography You Can’t Change History by leading hotelier, entrepreneur and businessman, Alan Gooderson, the Chairman of the Gooderson Leisure Group, was launched recently.

The book tells the story of how the Gooderson family translocated to Durban from the bleakness of post-war Britain in the 1950s, bringing with them a sturdy ethic of entrepreneurialism, hard work and family solidarity. The Goodersons were instrumental in transforming the Durban beachfront from a buckets and spades seaside resort into the pulsating centre of sophisticated entertainment it became in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gooderson Leisure – run today by Alan Gooderson – is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and has a portfolio that runs from traditional Durban beachfront hotels to golf resorts in the Drakensberg, to a hot springs resort, to eco-tourism resorts in Zululand and to hotel/conference facilities beyond the borders of KwaZulu-Natal.

The book describes the development of this network – often in the teeth of economic adversity – in which Alan Gooderson eventually became the single driving force. Alan’s faith in South Africa has never faltered, in spite of the negatives – largely political – that consistently confronted business over the years. That faith remains unshaken today.

But this is also a very human book and tells of the closeness and loyalty of the Gooderson family, personal tragedy,; the lighter moments of hotel-keeping, Alan’s involvement in poker, horseracing, golf and karate. He once swapped hotels with a man he was playing poker with and he once bought a hotel in the Free State to keep the bar open after an inter-provincial karate tournament.

His biography is written by Graham Linscott, and retails at R275 at Adams Book Stores and at the various Gooderson Leisure Properties.