BUSINESS REVIEW - Blue Nile: Tapping tourism opportunities
By Brian Hatyoka
Zambia has vast tourism potential which could contribute substantially to growth in the economy when fully harnessed.
Untapped tourism opportunities exist in all the 19 national parks and 34 game management areas as well as the 23 million hectares devoted to the conservation of an amazing variety of animals.
Specific areas of investments exist in game ranching, provision of accommodation, lodges, hotels, campsites, adventure holiday packages and Zambia’s cultural heritage among others.
Some investors have so far taken advantage of the untapped opportunities to set up various investments in the country.
One such investment is the Blue Nile Inn Hotel in Lusaka and Livingstone.
The first Blue Nile Inn hotel is already established in Lusaka’s Longacres area off Alick Nkhata Road. Development of a Blue Nile Inn II Hotel is in the process in Lusaka’s Makeni area as well as the Blue Nile Inn III Hotel in Livingstone.
Hotel director, Yewondwossen Mengistu said his hotel had earmarked about US$2.5 million investment to establish Blue Nile Inn II Hotel in Makeni and Blue Nile Inn III Hotel in Livingstone.
Construction of the Makeni Hotel is expected to be completed early next year after which construction of the Livingstone Hotel will start.
The first phase of development for the Makeni Blue Nile Inn II Hotel will cost US$ 750,000 while the second phase would cost $250,000.
The Livingstone Hotel will cost $1 million in the first while phase two would cost US$ 500, 000.
“We already bought land in Livingstone where we want to develop a hotel and a housing estate.
Architectural plans for the hotel and housing estates have already been done,” Mr Mengistu said.
Blue Nile Inn II Hotel to be located in Makeni will have 75 to 80 rooms when completed with conference facilities to cater for 150 people.
Mr Mengistu however said shortage of cement on the domestic market had affected the execution of the Makeni project.
He said construction works which started in 2005 could have finished by the end of this year had it not been for the cement shortage.
“The price of cement is currently too exorbitant because of the shortage of the commodity.
We had applied for more cement from Lafarge Cement Zambia but our request has not been granted up to now,” said Mr.Mengistu.
Mr Mengistu who worked for Ethiopian Airlines for 20 years as well as Aero Zambia for five years said he decided to invest in the tourism sector in the country because of the peace and stable macroeconomic environment in Zambia.
He said Zambians were friendly and welcoming people saying that nothing more was attractive than having friendly and welcoming people.
“God has blessed Zambia with peace. This is the biggest attribute hence Zambians and other investors should participate in the development of the tourism sector,” he said.
Zambians were also in a relatively advantageous position in that currently they had the opportunity to borrow money to develop the tourism sector.
“Apart from the Tourism Development Credit Facility, Zambians can access funds from banks to develop tourism.
Banks are now being proactive as long as you borrow money and put it to good use. A lot can be done to develop tourism in Zambia,” Mr Mengistu said .
He said the Government alone could not be everywhere hence the need for Zambians to venture into tourism vigorously to realise the vast untapped potential in the sector.
“Zambia has a lot of natural resources to support growth in tourism, therefore more people should consider participating in the sector. We also need to take advantage of existing traditional ceremonies to promote tourism,” he said.
He noted that as a result of the setting up of Sun International Hotel in Livingstone, tourism had picked up tremendously in the country.
Mr Mengistu observed how ever that Zambians were already venturing into the hotel industry citing the setting up of various hotels by indigenous investors.
“Let’s open up more tourist attractions in view of the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa which Zambia is set to benefit from.
Currently we are talking so much about Livingstone as a tourism destination but we need to also focus on the other areas,” he said.
Mr Mengistu also appealed to the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources to develop tourist maps of Zambia which will pinpoint various attractions that each province has.
He said this would enable would be investors to get an idea of what each province had to offer in terms of tourism potential.
“The tourism map should include the opportunities that exist in all the provinces,” he said.
Blue Nile Inn Hotels are indeed poised to play a lasting and supporting role in the development of the tourism sector in Zambia, this is one of the ways of ensuring that the talked about potential comes to realisation.
