Here comes Serena Hotel
The five-star Kampala Serena Hotel was officially opened last week.
By Paul Busharizi
The five-star Kampala Serena Hotel was officially opened last week.
After a $30m make-over that took 17 months to complete, the hotel has emerged bigger, better and easier on the eye.
The renovation involved a more than doubling of the room capacity to 152 from 65 rooms and breathtaking landscaping that includes cascading waterfalls and shimmering water gardens.
As time unfolds, the many benefits to the country that this hotel brings will become clearer but the two main benefits will have to be improvement in the country’s tourism and investment profile.
Kampala Serena is one of more than 20 operations in the Serena Hotels Group in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will therefore feed off an existing international hotel chain and will benefit from an established brand.
Only the Sheraton Hotel can claim the backing of an international chain in Uganda.
In the absence of a coherent marketing strategy, Uganda needs to link up with international brands to promote herself as a country and tourist destination.
One may cite Kenya’s years of political stability and draw a correlation to the hundreds of thousands of tourists flying in annually.
But you can be sure that the presence of the Hilton Hotel, Hotel Intercontinental and Serena Hotel has as much to do with the steady flow of tourists to our eastern neighbour as do the wildlife and good weather.
By attracting such international chains, Uganda will be able to tap into the million-dollar marketing budgets such establishments shell out every year to promote their activities.
The Serena Hotel will also serve as a test case for other multi-million dollar investments.
Other investors will be asking, can Uganda’s economy make a multi-million dollar investment viable?
Can it show returns that will make the hustle of corruption and poor infrastructure worth the bother?
That is where the Government needs to come in.
The problem with many investments in this country is that they are planned in isolation.
The BIDCO palm oil project in Kalangala has raised economic activity on the island.
However, the commissioning of a ferry to the island from Entebbe has made it a tourist destination as well.
However, there seems no official effort to promote this tourist potential alongside the palm oil project.
To maximise the potential of Serena, the Government needs to look at the shore up supporting infrastructure – roads, electricity, financial services, health services, hospitality schools, communications so that for the visitors, the Serena experience is not dampened by the frustrations of getting around the country.
In addition, the Government needs to enforce some minimum standards in the hotel industry.
A lack of hot water in the shower, a shabby waiter at breakfast or an unkempt lawn at a so-called three-star hotel may be the enduring memory tourists take back about this country.
The five-star status of the Serena should act as a spur to raise at least the hotels surroundings to five-star status. Otherwise you will have visitors who are happy to remain cooped up in their Serena suites than venture into the obstacle course of Kampala’s roads.
Ends
The five-star Kampala Serena Hotel was officially opened last week.
After a $30m make-over that took 17 months to complete, the hotel has emerged bigger, better and easier on the eye.
The renovation involved a more than doubling of the room capacity to 152 from 65 rooms and breathtaking landscaping that includes cascading waterfalls and shimmering water gardens.
As time unfolds, the many benefits to the country that this hotel brings will become clearer but the two main benefits will have to be improvement in the country’s tourism and investment profile.
Kampala Serena is one of more than 20 operations in the Serena Hotels Group in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will therefore feed off an existing international hotel chain and will benefit from an established brand.
Only the Sheraton Hotel can claim the backing of an international chain in Uganda.
In the absence of a coherent marketing strategy, Uganda needs to link up with international brands to promote herself as a country and tourist destination.
One may cite Kenya’s years of political stability and draw a correlation to the hundreds of thousands of tourists flying in annually.
But you can be sure that the presence of the Hilton Hotel, Hotel Intercontinental and Serena Hotel has as much to do with the steady flow of tourists to our eastern neighbour as do the wildlife and good weather.
By attracting such international chains, Uganda will be able to tap into the million-dollar marketing budgets such establishments shell out every year to promote their activities.
The Serena Hotel will also serve as a test case for other multi-million dollar investments.
Other investors will be asking, can Uganda’s economy make a multi-million dollar investment viable?
Can it show returns that will make the hustle of corruption and poor infrastructure worth the bother?
That is where the Government needs to come in.
The problem with many investments in this country is that they are planned in isolation.
The BIDCO palm oil project in Kalangala has raised economic activity on the island.
However, the commissioning of a ferry to the island from Entebbe has made it a tourist destination as well.
However, there seems no official effort to promote this tourist potential alongside the palm oil project.
To maximise the potential of Serena, the Government needs to look at the shore up supporting infrastructure – roads, electricity, financial services, health services, hospitality schools, communications so that for the visitors, the Serena experience is not dampened by the frustrations of getting around the country.
In addition, the Government needs to enforce some minimum standards in the hotel industry.
A lack of hot water in the shower, a shabby waiter at breakfast or an unkempt lawn at a so-called three-star hotel may be the enduring memory tourists take back about this country.
The five-star status of the Serena should act as a spur to raise at least the hotels surroundings to five-star status. Otherwise you will have visitors who are happy to remain cooped up in their Serena suites than venture into the obstacle course of Kampala’s roads.
Ends