YESTERDAY marked the official exit of Kingdom Hotel from Victoria Falls, ending a 56-year tourism history for one of the leading hotel operators.
The closure of Kingdom Hotel has negative impact on conference and room capacity, employment, tourism value chain and downstream services in Victoria Falls, tourism experts have said.
Victoria Falls city will not be the same again without Kingdom Hotel which had 294 rooms and the Great Enclosure conference facility which could accommodate up to 900 delegates, making it the biggest in the resort city.
Together with Elephant Hills Resort whose biggest conference room-Kalala can take up to 500 guests, the two facilities enabled Victoria Falls to host two big conferences concurrently.
Other hotels have smaller conference facilities.
The country’s largest hotel group, African Sun Limited (ASL) in July last year announced the closure of the facility effective yesterday.
The group cited the lease tenure with property owner — First Capital Bank (FCB), saying it had hoped to secure at least a 10-year lease but the landlord was offering two years.
The hotel has been under the African Sun stable since 1966.
It has one of the biggest room capacities in Victoria Falls, the size of about four small hotels as many properties in the resort city have less than 100 rooms each.
Victoria Falls has a deficit of more than 2 000 rooms.
The closure comes at a time when the country is pushing for more properties through partnerships with the private sector as it targets a US$5 billion tourism industry by 2025.
President Mnangagwa in August 2020 launched the National Tourism Growth and Recovery Strategy whose vision is to stir the sector to growth post Covid-19.
Compared to other hotels, Kingdom had more family-friendly facilities including more family rooms than any other
Victoria Falls hotel and child-friendly facilities on the pool side as well as supporting downstream industry.
A visit to the hotel yesterday showed an unusual atmosphere for a property that is usually buzzing with clients.
People were not allowed into the hotel premises and according to security personnel staff were in meetings.
Inquiries showed that workers were gathering all movable assets in preparation for an internal audit.
The car park that used to be crowded by taxi operators was deserted.
The Hotel group’s head of marketing, public relations and innovation Ms Charleen Mtezo had not responded to questions sent to her email yesterday.
The hotel employed more than 130 permanent staff and together with contract workers, had about 200 workers.
The Chronicle learnt that permanent staff had been redeployed to the group’s other facilities while contract workers had their services terminated.
Trade Unionist Mr Edward Dzapasi said it was unfortunate that workers were losing jobs hardly a year after resuming work after Covid-19 lockdowns.
“This is the most difficult time for anyone to lose a job when they need school fees and other needs. This will cause a lot of distress to workers,” he said.
We are Victoria Falls Initiative co-ordinator Ms Shelley Cox said the closure of Kingdom is a loss to the tourism sector.
“Any closure is a loss to the entire tourism sector in Zimbabwe. We however, look forward to working with the new tenant and given the fact that the closure takes place at the onset of a quieter season, it is not going to impact heavily on the industry,” she said.
Employers Association for the Tourism and Safari Operators Association deputy national president Mr Ephias Mambume said there will be need for national employment council to act to avert job losses.
“We are also alive to and worried about the effect on downstream businesses in the tourism industry. We hope that safety nets have been put in place to mitigate against the effects of closure of one of the biggest hotels in town. We hope that a new player has been identified to fill in the huge gap in the hospitality industry,” he said.
Mr Lemion Nyoni, a taxi operator said they had lost significant business.
“We are worried because we used to carry many people from Kingdom to different sites around town. In fact life will not be the same again for many taxi operators because even the workers were our clients as we would carry them when they knocked off,” he said.
A contract employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said it will not be easy for those who will lose jobs to be employed again.
Informal traders, especially those operating around the central business district will also be affected.
Mr Nkosilathi Matsheni who is a curio vendor said: “Kingdom brought clients closer to us because of its proximity. We didn’t have to move to get clients so our business has been affected now that the hotel is closing and this will affect many lives.”
Kingdom was the only hotel that had a resident traditional dance group to welcome guests at the entrance, a common practice in the resort city.
Other hotels hire groups when necessary to entertain guests.
Simunye dance group member Ms Fadzai Chizema said Kingdom Hotel was more like a permanent employment for them.
“We don’t know where we will start because Kingdom and African Sun had contracted us. They have promised to make a plan for us and we will be hoping something comes through,” she said.
African Sun is Zimbabwe’s leading hotel asset management company with a portfolio of hotels that is unparalleled in variety, location and size
The Kingdom was built around a man-made water feature and creates an impression of having been built on a lake.
The fate of domesticated fish in the small lake that runs underneath the property also remains unknown. – The Chronicle
