16 May 2017

Hospitality business owners in Shakawe have been urged to take advantage of the big lined-up projects earmarked for Okavango District and expand their accommodation capacity to attract more clientele.

The manager for the Hawk hotel in Shakawe, Mr Geoffrey Aaron said since the construction of the hospital and the Mohembo Bridge last year, the hospitality industry enjoyed better profits as the projects attracted a lot of attention.

He urged fellow business owners to expand their accommodation facilities to catch up with the pressure of the clientele noting that most of the lodges in the area had a capacity of between six and 10 rooms.

He emphasised the need for them to explore opportunities available to get through and establish themselves in business world.

Mr Aaron appreciated government departments for taking the lead in supporting small entrepreneurs noting that most of the clientele were public officers.

“Since we opened, we had been overwhelmed by clients as our facility is always fully booked. So we realised the need to expand to cater for more clients in future,” he said.

Mr Aaron also explained that since they took over the facility last year November, there had been a lot of improvement.

The new management bought the facility and it was closed temporarily to pave way for a serious renovation. Initially, the facility had four rooms and the management increased accommodation capacity to 16.

Mr Aaron said that was not enough adding that they intended to construct 10 more rooms as the future of the business seemed bright.

He also revealed that they wanted their facility to be more attractive and provide high standard service.

The intention of the new management is to change completely the image of the facility and make it more cultural to depict what the Okavango Delta could offer.

Mr Aaron said they wanted to use more reeds and grass from the delta for headboards and decorated with home-made baskets to make the rooms more colourful, adding that some of their clientele were from European countries and “they want to see something different so we want them to appreciate Hambukushu culture and tradition.”

He also noted that plans were underway to construct a big conference room as they had realised that there were no conference facilities in the village.

He said most of the time government departments and private sector used halls at junior school or land board conference room. ENDS