By Patricia Mashiri
Dunhuramambo has rebranded to Zambezi Cruise and Safaris to improve their market share and penetrate new markets through improvement of standards.
Since the rebranding, the organisation has witnessed a lot of tourists mainly the locals. They receive approximately 80% of local tourists, be it leisure or business.
Victor Mubiana, the Sales and Marketing Manager of Zambezi Cruise and Safaris said they they have safari lodges which include Pamuzinda, Chengeta and Shumba which are in Selous. They also have Kariba Safari and Masumu River Lodge that offer different types of services.
“At our lodges, we have different types of rooms in which we are sure they will cater for everyone’s needs. We have standard rooms, family rooms, garden and honeymoon suites among others. We also offer wedding venues and conference centres.
“We serve buffet with western-style food and traditional food which include ham meat and braais on weekends,”Mubiana said.
There are different types of activities at the safari lodges. These activities include canoeing, game drives, elephant interaction, horse rides and guided bush walks which entertain the tourists.
There game reserves have a lot of animals which include zebras, lions, warthogs, elephants snakes and buffaloes, just to mention a few.
Admire Mukono, the Human Resources and Administration Manager of Zambezi Cruise and Safaris said they are the largest houseboat operators in Zimbabwe.
“We have houseboats namely Shikra, Karibezi and Umbhoza. Sovereign and Ninghi are currently under refurbishment. We expect that they will be complete by June,”Mukono said.
The Manager said as part of its corporate social responsibility, the Zambezi Cruise and Safaris ploughed back to the community by building a primary and secondary school in the local area.
“Zambezi Cruise and Safaris has invested heavily since 2007 in building a primary and secondary school with sixteen classrooms, a meeting hall, caretaker’s home, teachers’ houses as well as a sports fields and Zero Grade play centre, all of which are on company-owned land and built by our own dedicated local building team.
“We are proud to say that our dream has been fulfilled and as a result, our flock has grown. We also introduced feeding schemes for the enrolled children as well as fresh clean borehole water. I’m also happy to to tell you that most of our workers here are from the surrounding areas,”Mukono said.
Zambezi Cruise and Safaris have flexible payment methods. For everyone booking accommodation, they allow payment of 50% of the rate and finish off the remaining amount as one wishes.
This also applies to the houseboat booking. One has to pay only 10% and finish the remainder later. However, the payments have to be finished off before the last two weeks to the visit. There is a room for negotiation of rates to the local tourists.