News / National
Shearwater acquires up-market cruise boat
03 Dec 2018 at 07:20hrs | Views
SHEARWATER Adventures has acquired a 100-seater up-market cruise boat to cater for executives.
The two-deck boat was manufactured by a Bulawayo company at a total cost of about $500 000 and is now in Victoria Falls ready for use on the Zambezi River.
Shearwater spokesperson Mr Clement Mukwasi said the development was a response to demand by the market in the wake of renewed interest in Zimbabwe as a tourist destination of choice.
"This is a 100-seater boat but we'll use it as a 60-seater because the facility we are providing is not an ordinary cruise. We're doing an up-market luxury cruise whose price and target market is different from the ordinary market," he said.
"The boat was made in Bulawayo for almost half a million dollars including transport because we needed to introduce luxury cruise on the upper Zambezi. This is a sign that the destination is growing in terms of numbers because if numbers were not in a positive trajectory, we wouldn't be investing such huge amounts of money."
Mr Mukwasi said the tourism industry was buoyed by the coming in of the Second Republic.
"We're not concerned about short term negatives because as a business we're seeing efforts being made by Government hence we're preparing for a bumper time, which is by the corner.
"We might end up being overwhelmed by tourists arrivals if we do not prepare for this expected tourism boom," he said.
There has been no specific luxury cruise boat here as operators would just offer executive services using the ordinary boats.
The new boat comes with a new dimension that has been lacking in the country's prime tourist destination.
"We have done market analysis and identified the need and so the making of the boat was informed by availability of the market.
"Most companies are already fully booked for the festive season and we are coming in to increase capacity.
We have two types of tourists namely backpackers or ordinary tourists and executive tourists who want time with families or groups," he said.
The two-deck boat was manufactured by a Bulawayo company at a total cost of about $500 000 and is now in Victoria Falls ready for use on the Zambezi River.
Shearwater spokesperson Mr Clement Mukwasi said the development was a response to demand by the market in the wake of renewed interest in Zimbabwe as a tourist destination of choice.
"This is a 100-seater boat but we'll use it as a 60-seater because the facility we are providing is not an ordinary cruise. We're doing an up-market luxury cruise whose price and target market is different from the ordinary market," he said.
"The boat was made in Bulawayo for almost half a million dollars including transport because we needed to introduce luxury cruise on the upper Zambezi. This is a sign that the destination is growing in terms of numbers because if numbers were not in a positive trajectory, we wouldn't be investing such huge amounts of money."
Mr Mukwasi said the tourism industry was buoyed by the coming in of the Second Republic.
"We might end up being overwhelmed by tourists arrivals if we do not prepare for this expected tourism boom," he said.
There has been no specific luxury cruise boat here as operators would just offer executive services using the ordinary boats.
The new boat comes with a new dimension that has been lacking in the country's prime tourist destination.
"We have done market analysis and identified the need and so the making of the boat was informed by availability of the market.
"Most companies are already fully booked for the festive season and we are coming in to increase capacity.
We have two types of tourists namely backpackers or ordinary tourists and executive tourists who want time with families or groups," he said.
Source - chronicle
