Zimbabwe Africa Sun re-brands Nigeria’s most Famous destination Obudu

ABUJA, Nigeria (eTN) – The flagship of Nigeria tourism industry popularly known as Obuda Cattle Ranch has been rebranded and it’s now called Obudu Mountain Resort.

ABUJA, Nigeria (eTN) – The flagship of Nigeria tourism industry popularly known as Obuda Cattle Ranch has been rebranded and it’s now called Obudu Mountain Resort.

Gabe Onah, special adviser on tourism to the Cross River State governor, disclosed this recently while briefing journalists at the resort. He said the new manager of the resort African Sun Hotels of Zimbabwe insisted that the name has to change for marketability purposes. “We listened to their argument and reasons,” Onah said.

As a result of the aforementioned, the hotel has embarked on the production of new brochures and signposts among others to reflect the new name.

African Sun managing director Ewan Cameron who was in Nigeria from his South Africa base to receive transport and tourism journalists as well as tour operators to the resort said that the brief familiarization trip is to help market the resort to Nigerians and beyond; noting that his chain will do everything to ensure that the resort become a household name in Africa.

New brochures and signposts have also resurfaced across the state and efforts are being made to promote and market the new name to the consciousness of Nigerians and international visitors.

George Manyumwa, the Zimbabwean general manager of Obudu Mountain Resort, who is tasked to make sure that the resort achieve the aspirations and recoup all the several millions of dollars so far invested by the Cross River State government said his organization, African Sun Limited, is willing and has all it takes to fulfilling the goals and objectives of the owner.

According to him, the resort is settling down for business now, just as retraining exercises are on going. He said: “Before now, my major challenge like every new manager or general manager is getting to know the staff and identifying their strength and weaknesses, and who can do what to achieve the desire result. With the re training exercise done, we are gradually striking the right chord as well as reaching the level that African Sun is known for. That will enable us to run the resort efficiently and effectively as a five star property.”

Apart from investing in training, African Sun has also put in place a good maintenance department to care for existing structures with emphasis on preventive measures rather than repairing. “We have a good maintenance and housekeeping departments that are responsible for the day-to-day inspection and monitoring of all facilities. Our only and major challenge is how to fill all our rooms at all time. During peak period, our occupancy is about 70 percent, whilst low season can be as low as about 25 percent. On the average, it’s generally around 40 percent. However, this year, we are targeting an average of about 60 percent.”

Manyumwa added: “We are going to focus on sales/marketing drive across major cities in Nigeria; backed up by sales promotions to attract more patronage. The sales drive will be complemented with billboards, adverts, and familiarization tours for journalists, tour operators, corporate/protocol managers of companies that do seminars and workshops regularly.”

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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