Demand for quality accommodation will see Uganda’s Protea Hotel Entebbe more than double in size less than two years after first opening doors.
Construction starts on the new phase of the 73-room hotel in May 2014 and is expected to take approximately a year to complete.
100 new rooms are being added to the hotel on Spenar Beach on the beautiful Lake Victoria.
The accommodation target market is the international corporate business traveller, air crew and the domestic conference market.
This second phase will offer an upmarket, superior class of accommodation and will be graded to comply with both the East African and South African Grading Council standards, says Stuart Cook, head of Protea Hotels in Uganda.
“Protea Hotel Entebbe has been running at high occupancies since it first opened, so building this new wing is a necessity.
” The Entebbe area is developing rapidly as a hub for activities related to UN in countries such as the DRC and Sudan, as well as coming into its own as a regional economic growth hub.
These are the markets we will largely be servicing with the hotel extension.”
Danny Bryer, Director of Sales, Marketing and Revenue, says the conference market is also burgeoning in Entebbe, as it is in many parts of Africa where regional economies are expanding off the back of good national growth figures and stable markets.
“In Uganda we’re seeing this in Hoima as well, and in other countries such as Nigeria’s southern central Benin City, where a new Protea Hotel opened in February.
“Regional business hubs are where we’re going to see vast economic expansion in Africa in the next 5 years and it’s a particular growth focus for the hospitality industry as well.
At the moment nearly 120 000 hotel rooms are under construction or in the pipeline for the continent, many of those in the regional cities where manufacturing, mineral exploration and agriculture-related trade is taking off.”
Protea Hotel Entebbe has a trendy restaurant that offers an exciting and truly inviting a la carte menu seven days of the week. Specialities include Tilapia and Nile Perch, while guests can also relax in the bar or on the terrace, with its gorgeous view of Lake Victoria.
Protea Hotel Entebbe’s conference venue can accommodate a maximum of 350 delegates.