ZIMBABWE cemented its position as the region’s premier conferencing destination after hosting the 44th summit of Southern African Development Community (Sadc) heads of state and government last month, according to Tendai Madziwanyika, chief executive officer at Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG).
The country’s second largest leisure chain superintends over a string of hospitality facilities, including the five- star Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare.
RTG was among organisations that set at the centre of the summit’s success, hosting most of the Sadc leaders who participated.
“Having successfully hosted the 44th Sadc summit, and looked after seven heads of state, we are now confident that Zimbabwe is now well positioned as the premier destination for regional and international meetings and conferences,” Madziwanyika, said in RTG’s in-house magazine published after the summit.
He said RTG had invested US$26 million in product refurbishments in the past five years.
Of this amount, US$10 million was invested in Rainbow Towers and Harare International Conference Centre (HICC), which is housed within the same estate as the hotel.
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“The new amenities and features make the hotel a top choice for both business and leisure travellers,” Madziwanyika said. “We are therefore upbeat about the current business performance and the future of this hotel,” he noted.
In the current scope of works, a total of US$5 million was invested to give Rainbow Towers a new feel.
“I prefer to call the work we did – ‘refashioning’ as it is more holistic in describing the amount of work which was undertaken,” he said.
“The scope of works included the complete refashioning of three floors, where we created six luxury diplomatic suites by collapsing four guest rooms into one Presidential suite, resulting in a luxurious suite comprising two bedrooms (both ensuite), one lounge, one dining room, one kitchenette and a visitors bathroom.
“Over and above the suites, we modernised 48 rooms — that is 16 new rooms per each of the three floors.”
The HICC, for the first time since it was completed in the 1980s, was modernised with brand new chairs with charging options including 3-pin, C-type and USB charging ports, the executive said.
“In addition, the chairs have an inbuilt writing pad for ease of working and new carpets throughout. It is important for me to highlight that the HICC remains the largest single-use amphitheatre colosseum-style conferencing venue in Africa,” he said.
“This facility has the capacity to host 4 500 delegates. We are now targeting regional and international meetings and conferences as we have a world-class product,” Madziwanyika said.