Livingstone Hotel University?


This from the Times of Zambia:

The Hotel and Tourism Training Institute (HTTI) will next year invest US$50 million in constructing a tourism complex that will house a 150-room hotel, university and establishing a game reserve in Livingstone.

The project, which will be done in three phases, will take between three and five years to complete.
HTTI executive director, Moses Sakala said in Lusaka yesterday that Senior Chief Mukuni had availed 163 hectares of land to the project and that title deeds were still being processed. Mr Sakala, who did not state the month when construction will start, said there was no land available in Lusaka for the complex, but the chief offered traditional land in the tourist capital.

The project will be done in three phases, with phase one concentrating on putting up a road network, water facilities and electricity for easy access to the site. Phase two will focus on construction of the university, which includes administration offices, lecture rooms, computer laboratories, and student hotels, at a cost of $20 million. The last phase of the project will involve construction of the hotel and establishing a game reserve.

“Since we are a special institution, we will set up a hotel and game reserve on the site and be able to train our students in how to look after our guests and the environment,” Mr Sakala said in an interview.
The funds for the project will be raised through a consortium of local and foreign financial institutions, whose names Mr Sakala withheld as discussions were yet to be concluded.

“We have not yet started the construction works but we will start during the course of 2010 because this is a big project where we have to put up a road network, water and connect the area to power,” he said. The university will be the first in Zambia to offer degree programmes in tourism and hospitality. “Currently, the courses being offered only reach diploma level and one cannot advance to a degree programme because there is no institution offering degrees in tourism and hospitality,” he said.

Mr Sakala also said HTTI had refurbished the conference room, restaurant and acquired new laundry machines for Fairview Hotel in Lusaka, which is being expanded to add two more storeys.

My opinion? Too much, too late. The picture? Chief Mukuni riding one of his recently acquired elephants.

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