Cresta opens second hotel in Maun

Boniface Keakabetse | Friday April 21, 2017 17:32

 

This will be the second hotel in Maun for the hospitality group that also owns Cresta Rileys.

Chivese said the hotel is at the final stages of construction and fittings with recruitment of staff in progress. The Cresta Maun Hotel is located 10 kilometres from Maun along the Thamalakane River.

It has 83 rooms-standard double rooms and junior suites. Its presidential suite will be named after the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama.

The resort will have two conference facilities with a capacity of 300 people. The opening of the new hotel comes at a time when the hospitality group says it feared that the market for lodges and hotels is nearing saturation particularly in the main urban centres of the country.

Although Cresta is still turning satisfactory profit margins, the Botswana Stock Exchange-listed company says the operating environment in Botswana is increasingly becoming challenging and retaining customers will be key going forward. “The challenges in the Botswana market continue to increase. 

The market is nearing saturation point as evidenced by increased competition and influx of new entrants, primarily in Gaborone and Francistown, which has exerted pressure on the company’s market share,” Cresta said in a statement accompanying their results for the year ended December 31, 2017.

In the past five years, lodges and hotels that have opened shop in Gaborone in the three to four star category include Town Lodge, Indaba Lodge, Phakalane Hotel, Masa Square and Regent Hotel.

Officiating at the groundbreaking ceremony of the hotel construction, in 2015, minister Khama said the addition of Cresta Maun Hotel would help diversify Maun tourism product. He noted that Cresta’s growth strategy had taken into consideration the transformation of Maun from just a village to a booming economic hub in Ngamiland.

Khama said his ministry is worried that currently tourists do not spend longer time in Maun as they fly directly to the Okavango Delta from the airport.