Sterling spreads wings to Victoria Falls

STERLING Group of Hotels, one of the fast growing hospitality industry players in the country, is planning to establish a hotel in Victoria Falls as the operator continues to expand across the country.

The group has operations in three provinces namely Bulawayo, Harare and Mashonaland Central.

In these provinces are Sterling Bulawayo Hotel, Sterling Resort in Kanyemba, Boutique Lodge in Hoggerty Hills, Sterling Castle in Glenlorne and Sterling Hotel and Conference in Mvurwi.

Speaking in Victoria Falls recently when the hospitality group, together with Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Albatross Golf Safaris, hosted the 2024 Sterling Group International Pairs Golf Tournament National Finals at Elephant Hills, the group’s general manager Mr Fungai Mutseyekwa said there are numerous projects on the way.

“We have quite a number of initiatives that we did, the flagship being Sterling Resort in Mvurwi and Sterling Private Hospital, which operates at Sterling Conference Centre. As a group in terms of corporate social responsibility we are doing a lot as we are expanding,” he said.

“Here in Victoria Falls we are looking at opportunities where we are saying we need to have a facility in terms of hospitality operations.

Mr Fungai Mutseyekwa

“We also need to make sure that every province we have a facility, which is running suffice to say so far we have three provinces we are running, which is Bulawayo, Harare and Mashonaland Central. We have land banks in places like Kariba, Karoi, Guruve and here in Victoria Falls.”

Sterling Hotel Bulawayo in North End is a 50-bed facility and leisure and conference. Kanyemba, along Zambezi River on the border of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe is already open with a conference room for 60 people and seven rooms that are operational.

“In Kanyemba in total we are supposed to close the year at 25 rooms. We have land where can expand to plus or minus 60 bedrooms. As a group we are plus or minus 400 employees on the hospitality division and we also have other products like Sterling Travel and Tours, which is seven months old and Sterling School of Hospitality, which also have their workers,” said Mr Mutseyekwa.

The group also runs a private hospital and has embraced sports tourism as a complement to the growth of the sector and business while giving back to the community.

Mr Mutseyekwa said the group will sponsor golf annually. Group chair, Mr Wilbert Manyika, said Sterling Group of Hotels is a dynamic and rapidly expanding hospitality brand with a vision to redefine the guest experience in Zimbabwe. —newsda