RTG in its first major renovation in 39 years

NATHAN GUMA

TOURISM and hospitality giant Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) says the ongoing massive refurbishment of its flagship Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare, the first such undertaking in 39 years, will help push revenue performance as the company seeks to enhance its competitive edge in the market.

The RTG is the dominant player in Zimbabwe’s tourism industry specialising in hotel and conference services, tour operations and operates the largest tourism online booking platform in Zimbabwe, the Gateway Stream App. 

The group has six hotels located across Zimbabwe.

Its flagship hotel, the Rainbow Towers Hotel and Harare International Conference Centre (HICC), are currently undergoing a complete overhaul aimed at modernising the infrastructure.

As part of the transformation of the facility, some of the hotel’s standard rooms are being remade into executive rooms, while all elevators have been completely modernised.

More work is also underway, with the RTG’s 4 500-seater HICC, housed at the Rainbow Hotel, being revamped, as part of the company’s US$10 million re-fashioning investment.

A tour by the media at the facility confirmed the massive refurbishments aimed at modernising the Rainbow Towers Hotel and the HICC.

At the HICC all carpets in the amphitheatre will be replaced while all chairs will be replaced by July, bringing a makeover to the centre.

RTG chief executive officer Tendai Madziwanyika is upbeat about the refurbishment exercise, telling The NewsHawks:

“The product improvement projects that we are undertaking are really aimed at various aspects of the hotel. Remember, this hotel was launched in 1985 and ever since there has never been a total rebuild of the place.

“So what we have done is that we have targeted areas that will make the biggest impact. I will give you an example. We have renewed all the lifts in the hotel. Those lifts are synchronised. So this will help in terms of movement of the guests to the rooms. We are going to have totally refashioned them to become world class. We have taken off plumbing, electricals, plastering and everything.”

Madziwanyika added: “So those rooms are brand new. All the chairs have been removed and the carpets. It’s the first time this has happened over the past 40 years. We think that this will be serious business as it will be brand new.”

The group has already invested US$10 million in rooms re-fashioning at Rainbow Towers Hotel and Conference Centre over the past five years.

In 2020, the RTG invested US$4.6 million in the re-fashioning of 183 guestrooms and two state-of-the-art elevators, with the presidential suite completed in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The presidential suite is being overhauled together with diplomatic suites. Madziwanyika said the renovations to the conference centre are in preparation for the upcoming Sadc Summit to be hosted by Zimbabwe in August.

“As you can see, we are doing major works. This is the first time we have conducted works such as these ever since the construction of this hotel in 1985. We have taken out the old chairs and the old carpets. And the aim is that we would have all taken out the old chairs and carpets,” he said.

“This is being done to showcase this place as the best in Africa. As you can see the shape of it is very unique. It has what we call the amphitheatre shape. So it is very unique and there is no facility like this in Africa. Beyond this HICC, we have changed all the lifts. They are going to be talking to one another so that guests do not have to wait for long after calling a lift.

Added Madziwanyika: “We are also completing the refashioning of all our guest rooms. We have the largest guest rooms in the country, at 38 square metres  per room and we have changed everything about them. All 300 or so rooms are going to be re-done by the time of the Sadc conference.”

Listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, the RTG is a dominant player in the tourism industry with six hotels located across Zimbabwe.

Two are in the capital city Harare, one in the mining town — Kadoma, one in the country’s second largest city — Bulawayo and two in the resort town of the world-renowned tourist attraction Victoria Falls.